Part of being a safe and welcoming community for everyone who chooses to be in covenant with us is learning about how to be awesome with service animals when they are present. Curious about best practice when you encounter a service animal out and about? We’ve got you covered!
Notice when an animal is in a service vest, signaling that it is not a pet, but a working companion.
Ask the human how the service dog helps them and get permission before interacting with the service dog.
Speak directly to the human, not the service dog.
Give extra personal space to the service dog and its person.
Always assume the service dog is busy working, not off duty.
More information is available from Guide Dogs of America to deepen your understanding and skills. Thanks for helping us live our values of inclusivity!
Buy your ticket and meet us in section 2 of Goss Stadium on June 29th for a night of scream singing Sweet Caroline and cheering for the home team!
Opening pitch is at 5:00. Come a little early so we can all sit together! By registering HERE, you’ll help us know how many seats to try to save, but there’s no guaranteed seating in general admission. If enough people register to buy a discounted block of tickets together, I will let you know the week before.
We made it through another fabulous Fellowship year! 🙌 With some of your favorite RE activities on summer hiatus, you might be wondering what other opportunities are coming for children, youth, and families. Well, wonder no more!
Grab your calendars and get ready for summer goodness you won’t want to miss!
SUMMER EVENTS for FAMILIES
6/8 Family Hike at Lewisburg Saddle, 1-2PM, register here
6/23-27 Play to Your Values summer camp, 8:30 to 11:30 on the Fellowship Lawn
6/29 Corvallis Knights Game, 5-8ish at Goss Stadium, register here
7/6 Sunday Morning Kids’ Lemonade Stand, during and after the service
7/13 Family Hike at Fitton Green, 1-2PM, register here
8/3 Sunday Morning Sidewalk Chalk Values, during the service for kids
8/10 Family Hike and Splash at Mary’s River Natural Area, 1-3PM register here
8/16 Outdoor movie night and camping on the lawn, 9PM register here
8/24 Ice Cream Social, 7PM on Fellowship Lawn, register here
SUMMER EVENT for YOUTH
8/24 Youth kickoff river float, noon to whenever, register here
More information about our events can be found below, and info for all events can be found at uucorvallis.org by clicking “News” in the menu bar and then selecting “RE Council” from the drop down menu.
The second Sunday of each month, June through August, we’ll be hosting a family hike. We ask that families preregister so that we know who to wait for at the trailhead, and hikes with fewer than 2 registered families will be canceled via text.
We’ll be starting with Lewisburg Saddle and a little visit to the spot my family calls Salamander Heaven because there are tons of salamanders to see. Then we’ll hit Fitton Green in July. We’ll wrap up the summer with a short walk followed by a splash in a bend in the river that has shallows for little humans and a deeper pool for our confident swimmers on the back side of Mary’s River Natural Area.
Exciting news! The youth will have a dedicated youth room in September and they’ve chosen a wild accent wall to paint themselves. We will begin painting this Sunday and continue on Sundays until the job is done. Please have youth arrive in clothes that can get paint on them.
On the first Sunday of each month, we will have a multiage activity for the kids. In July, we’ll prepare a lemonade stand again to raise money for the charitable organization that the children vote to give to. In August, we’ll spend some time on the playground talking about our shared values and what they mean to us, and then sidewalk chalk the heck out of firwood entrance with 6 word statements about our values.
If you’re nervous about having the kids in the sanctuary again, know that you’ll have relief on the first Sunday of each month!
In addition to hikes and during-service activities, we have a couple of night time activities that are open to the entire congregation, and geared specifically toward families.
On June 29th, we’ll have a ballpark night with the Knights. Buy a ticket and join us in section 2 so we can sing and cheer and eat junk together. Register for that event HERE.
And on August 16th, we’re going to show the classic My Girl on an outdoor movie screen and you’re invited to camp on the lawn and show up to the service in your jammies the next day. Registration for the movie night with camping is HERE. You do not have to camp to come enjoy the movie!
It’s been so much fun getting to know your children over the course of this last year. They are delightful in all the ways and it’s the biggest honor to get to spend time with them week after week and get to know their quirks and gifts.Â
Thank you for raising such amazing humans and for being committed to doing it in community!
Before you go, some parents have requested to be contacted about RE happenings via text. Our church management software allows for that, but only once you’ve opted in. If you are interested in receiving things like this newsletter via text, please use this form to opt into that service. And please communicate with me about how it’s going if you opt in. Breeze can be a bit fussy, so this will be a new experiment. I’ll be counting on your feedback!  And as always, if you’d like to stop receiving updates about Fellowship RE activities, email me and let me know.  Happy June, Y’all!Â
“Welcoming our sorrow eases the hardened places within us, allowing them to open and freeing us to once more feel our kinship with the living presence around us. This is deep activism, soul activism that actually encourages us to connect with the tears of the world. Grief keeps the heart flexible, fluid, and open to others… Our activism is directly connected to our heart’s ability to respond to the world. A congested heart, one burdened with unexpressed sorrow, cannot stay open to the world, and consequently, cannot be fully available for the healing work so needed at this time.” – Frances Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow:
WHAT: Workshop offered by Skyla to explore lamentation — the ancient practice of passionately expressing sorrow through language and art. Participants will engage with a formal structure for writing a personal lament and artistically express their grief in the format of a small zine. No artistic skills are needed, and all supplies will be provided.
This workshop was generously provided to religious professionals around the nation by Rev. JaKaren Bell and the UU College of Social Justice, with the invitation to teach this practice in our home congregations. It is our hope that this spiritual practice will provide spiritual sustenance to fuel your justice work.
Register for this year-long group HERE by September 8th.
One of the sacred tasks of being human is making meaning of our lives, our identities, and the ever-unfolding story we are part of. In these threshold moments—when something ends and something new begins— ritual, reflection, and community provide needed grounding.Â
As Unitarian Universalists, we are blessed with a tradition rich in honoring life’s passages, especially for our children and youth. Yet too often, adults must navigate profound change without the spiritual scaffolding of ritual or the comfort of shared witness.
If you are living through a major life transition—grief, retirement, gender transition, divorce, recovery, becoming a parent, or any other significant turning point—you are not alone.
We invite you to join “Crossing Thresholds,” a year-long spiritual journey beginning this September. Together, we will explore the depth and complexity of change through:
Monthly meditations in nature to reconnect with the rhythms of life
Personal altar-making, with sacred objects displayed in our community atrium
Quarterly circle conversations, offering space for deep listening and shared wisdom
Reflective practices to honor your unique story of transformation
Our time together will culminate in June’s River of Life service, where participants will be lovingly recognized by the congregation in their new place on the journey. This is an opportunity to be witnessed as you cross the threshold into what comes next with intention, spiritual grounding, and beloved community.
Group will meet from 6:30-8PM in Room 7 on the following dates:
September 11th: Meet and explore the process
September 15th: create altars
November 13th, January 8th, March 12th, and May 14th: Group reflection
*Monthly nature meditation times to be determined by group consensus. Individual atrium meditation time can be schedule with Skyla.
Wondering what’s up in RE? Got some great ideas to share? Well, then you’re invited to a casual RE info session after the service on Sunday, May 25th!
If the weather holds, we’ll gather out back on the concrete benches while the kids frolic, and if its yucky… well, we’ll hang in the back corner of the social hall and speak loudly.
If you can’t make it, but you have questions or ideas, my inbox is always open or you can book an appointment with me here.
See you Sunday!
~ Skyla King-Christison, Director of Religious Exploration
Recently, a small group of Fellowship members spent several weeks crafting their elevator speeches about Unitarian Universalism. That is, they worked on how they might best describe UUism to someone in the time it takes to move between floors on an elevator. UUs often find it easier to describe what we aren’t rather than what we are, and many of us are inclined to be rather wordy, so it was no small task. And the task is never done.
The point of the elevator speech is to know what to say on the fly, so it takes practice! If you see any of these brave souls at coffee hour, help them keep their skills sharp by asking to hear their elevator speech.
A few of them will be sharing their speech in an upcoming Sunday service to hopefully inspire you to consider what you might say, if asked, “What the heck is Unitarian Universalism, anyway?” Do you have a go-to answer? If so, Skyla wants to hear it!
This month’s newsletter contains some important information for parents about RE in the month and year ahead, so please read carefully!
UPCOMING EVENTS for FAMILIES
5/4 Summer Camp Registration Deadline, more info and registration HERE.
5/11 Final Family Breakfast of the year, Mother’s Day Edition, pre-register HERE.
5/15 Final Parent Peer Support Group of the year, 6:30-8PM
5/25 Parent Feedback and Q&A session, noon on back patio
6/1 River of Life Sunday with Stepping Stone Ceremony
UPCOMING EVENTS for YOUTH
5/11 and 5/25 4:30-7 OWL regular workshops
More information about our events can be found below, and info for all events can be found at uucorvallis.org by clicking “News” in the menu bar and then selecting “RE Council” from the drop down menu.
At the Fellowship, it’s our cherished tradition to celebrate children and youth as they move into new age groups with a special Stepping Stone Ceremony. Each child will receive a gift, words of affirmation, and be honored by the congregation as they journey forward in the river of life.
This year’s celebration will be especially joyful! We’re adding a new age group to our Sunday programs, renaming some of our spaces, and—wonderfully—we have more children to honor than in recent years.
If your child is entering kindergarten, 5th, or 6th grade (or their equivalents), please complete this form to register them for the ceremony. We look forward to marking this milestone together in community.
May will be our last family breakfast of the year before we break for summer. It also happens to fall on Mother’s Day! Rather than moving the date, our gracious hosts, the Polinder family, plan to make it a extra special to honor all the moms. Please plan to join us for this beloved gathering, and help with our planning by registering HERE at least a few days before.
Family breakfast will resume in the fall!
We are excited for our children to explore our shared values through puppetry and folk tales with accomplished professional puppeteer, Linda Zittel! The last day to register for camp is May 4th and registration, as well as more detailed information, can be found HERE!
There are a lot of changes on the horizon, y’all! As we prepare to return to intergenerational services for the summer, and envision our return to the classroom wing in the fall, lots of decisions need to be made, and that means I want to hear from YOU about what has been working and what hasn’t, and what your dreams and concerns are for the return to normal Sunday morning RE, AND I want to answer your questions about our plans for room use, curriculum, and the general wellbeing of your children when they are in our care.
You are invited to bring your drinks and snacks to the benches on the back patio on Sunday, May 25th to spend coffee hour asking and sharing for the mutual benefit of all who are invested in our RE programs for children and youth. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas!
Last month was loaded with fun! Our youth went to the Hult Center to experience Hamilton live on stage and their excitement was absolutely contagious! And between our JETPIG Easter and Beltane Maypole, I can honestly say we made the most of the beautiful spring sunshine and blossoms! If you have ideas for enriching activities you’d like to see take place over the summer, I want to hear them!
Everything we are able to provide in RE is only possible because volunteers generously give their time to bring these events to life for others! Our values-driven Easter experience would not have been possible without the help of Priscilla Galasso, Anya Ballinger, and Adriel Molk, all committing to help out in the weeks leading up to the event. And then, on the day-of, our fabulous young people, Sabina Giordono and Kezi Hirsch, stepped in to fill a need to talk to kids about justice and Love.
Thank you to all of our volunteers who fill roles big and small. You are the beating heart of Fellowship life!
Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Fellowship librarians, Holley Lantz and Christine Robbins, and volunteer Eric Lantz, the children’s collection in the Rita McDonald Memorial Library has been digitally cataloged and is ready for check outs!
Children (and adults who read children’s books) can now apply for a library card with this form, and use our new digital checkout kiosk. Please allow 3 days for new accounts to be set up prior to attempting to check out.
We have many faith-specific adult books that cannot be found at the county library and we’d love to see more people making use of this resource. Feedback about the usability of the adult collection is most welcome!
Thanks so much for being part of what makes our Fellowship shine! Happy May, Y’all!
In case you read the monthly journal, and you’re thinking Hey! I want to know more about these emerging trends in RE, I’ve got some resources for you! If you haven’t read the monthly journal yet, go check your inbox!
Joy Berry, the UUA’s children and families faith development specialist, has a nice post about whole-church RE that will get you started. After attending several of her discussion sessions, I was compelled to use her WCRE map template in planning for next year’s RE. If you look closely, you’ll spot things you’ve never seen before at UUFC!
If any of those stars spark your interest and you want to help, let me know! Mary Jo Wood and Joyce Standing are already helping with plans for our Jr. worship associates and Angel Swanson is gearing up to bring the Mosaic antiracism curriculum to adults and children. If everyone takes a small piece of the plan, our whole church connections will really shine!
This article on de-centering curriculum focuses on post-curriculum approach as a response to the wildly fluctuating Sunday attendance. Maybe you’ve noticed that some Sundays we have 5 kids at Time for All Ages and others we have 30. These are wild times! Luckily, we’re making it work and our congregation is one of the few for whom loose curriculum in Sunday morning spaces is still working (see more on that below), but we’re not out of the woods. It’s useful to take note of some of the massive cultural shifts that show up in the ways we gather. These changes will continue to shape how we show up in community and require that we have adaptive spirits if we’re in this for the long haul.
This article about how some churches are still finding success with curriculum highlights some of the reasons we’re doing so well. A major factor is financial support for staffing. Our volunteers are soul-weary and cannot commit to doing their own planning and prep. So thanks, all you pledging members! You’re making it possible for us to continue to provide structured exploration spaces in this current landscape of burnout and stress. We have been able to pivot to using curriculum with stand-alone lessons so that no one is lost when they join only sporadically. We have integrated much more social time and lightened the amount of curriculum-driven elements are in each Sunday session to keep our children’s spaces low-stakes and high nurture. We are so eager to get back into the classroom wing where we have dedicated spaces that are conducive to focused exploration as well as meaningful social connection. We’re getting a little itchy in the social hall, especially as we continue to grow.
I’m excited to hear your thoughts and ideas about whole church RE. Come talk to me about your ideas!
