From the Minister

Dear Fellowship:

This week I wish you the peace of a pause to enjoy the beautiful images, music, and message in this video.  There is a love holding you.  Rest in that love.

With care,
Rev. Alex

Covenant is a Verb and a Noun

From the Interim Minister, Rev. Alex McGee

Dear Fellowship:

While many religions are hierarchical, Unitarian Universalism is not.  While many religions have a creed, Unitarian Universalism does not.  But what we do have that binds us together is covenant.  Covenant is not rules.  It is agreements. It is voluntary.  It allows risk and trust, because of setting an understanding of how we will be in relationship.  

The reason I love covenant is because I can explore with others when we feel tension but know we want to stick together.  I love covenant because it names the ways we want to be, and honors that sometimes we fall short, and gives us space for repair.  I love covenant because it creates a circle of intention that gives me happy chills of what is possible for love and courage in humanity.  

I have been reminded of covenants all summer.  At the Unitarian Universalist Minister Association national meeting in June, a thousand of us started our meeting by reading our covenant together.  When I arrived in Corvallis in July, I met with Rev. Jill and she and I discussed how we wanted to honor and act with one another in our unique roles related to UUFC; then we put it in writing as a covenant.  When I arrived at the UUFC building in August, I immediately noticed the congregational covenant printed on green sheets in the lobby.  This past Sunday, the staff brainstormed, laughed, and discerned together how we would like to show up together; we expect to finalize our Staff Covenant next week.  And on Tuesday night at the board meeting, the board read out loud a past covenant and agreed to covenant again to it for the coming year.  

Since I arrived there have been a handful times when I felt a tension or an “ouch” with someone, but then I chose to rally my courage and centeredness to check in with them so we could get aligned again.  I felt a building of trust when the other person welcomed the chance to see from each other’s perspective.  As a result, we can go forward to even deeper and stronger work together.

I see again and again that covenant is both a verb and a noun.  And it is a living document — reviewed and renewed.  I encourage you to look at the formal covenants you have with other Unitarian Universalists, and perhaps in other areas of your life.  May they allow courageous action and loving relationship interwoven.

In Peace,

Rev. Alex McGee

Alex is happy to meet with members and info on how to reach her is on her bio page.

Connections to UUs Near and Far

from Rev. Alex McGee September 12, 2025: 

On Sunday, please help welcome Sam Pearl, who will travel from the Bay Area to be with us.  In addition to participating in the opening of worship, Sam will share some of Sam’s stories of growing up UU with our teens during their Religious Exploration time, and then Sam will give a workshop for the Board and Staff in the afternoon.  Sam serves on the Regional Staff of the Pacific Northwest Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).  

Pacific Western regional staff practice the four Cs:  (1) challenge congregational leaders to help their congregations become the most vital congregations each can become, (2) coach congregational leaders through consultation and trainings, (3) companion congregations through times of difficulty and times of celebration, and (4) connect congregational leaders to one another, to other institutional partners, and to resources.  Learn more here: https://www.uua.org/pacific-western

And the region is not the only place UUs are reaching out to us!  Our connections to UUs across the country are shown in this video from the UUA President, Dr. Sofia Betancourt, as she welcomes in a new year of programming.  I find the voices in the video give me a sense of calm and courage.  I hope you will, too. Read the letter that accompanies this video by clicking this link.

Finally, right here at home in the Fellowship, please know that I am open for meeting with you about what is on your heart and mind.  I have set aside Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for meetings, but can also be flexible.  You can suggest a time by writing rev.alex.mcgee@uucorvallis.org, or sign up outside the door of my office.  Plus, the contact info for all the staff is at this page.  Please know that we on staff are all learning together and striving to serve the congregation as it lives into its values.

Sincerely,
Rev. Alex McGee

Dear Friends:
I look forward to sharing the Gathering Water Ceremony this coming Sunday—whether you are on Zoom or in person. Each of us pouring water together is a very meaningful time to reflect on how each of us matter in the Fellowship and bring unique qualities. I continue to honor the many different ways that people are experiencing current shifts in Fellowship life. And so today I offer you this reading, which will be the opening words this coming Sunday. I hope you can take a moment now to savor them and feel how they land with you.
In peace,
Rev. Alex

River Call

Between rocking the boat
and sitting down;
between stirring things up,
and peaceably going along,

We find ourselves
here,
in community.

Each called
from many different
journeys,
many different
life paths,
onto this river road.

Some are here
because the rocking of
the boat
has been too much:
too much tumult,
too much uncertainty,
too much pain.

Some are here with questions
about where the boat is going;
how best to steer it;
where this journey ends.

Others are here
as lovers of the journey,
lovers of life itself.

Here in front
beside
behind

each a passenger;
each a Captain;
doing the best we can.

“Rest here, in your boat,
with me,” the river calls;
“Listen to how I flow,
the sound of life coursing all around you.”

Let the current
hold you,
let the current
guide you;
the river that gently flows
through your soul,
whispers:
“Come, let us worship.”

—Manish K. Mishra-Marzetti

Hi Fellowship!

Look at this photo of my office door in the fresh new Religious Exploration wing of the building!  How wonderful that all the effort for renovations and fix-up have borne fruit and are ready to welcome youth on September 7.  I am grateful to the crew who worked on signage so I have a bulletin board outside the door of the office I use.  Perhaps in the photo you can see it is Room 1 – right inside the doors of the RE wing, which are to the right of the parking lot door.

Most important, this photo shows that on my door I have taped a copy of the congregational covenant.  Can you see that green piece of paper? The Fellowship covenanted to this in May 2023, and it reminds us of love, respect, listening, celebrating differences, clarifying misunderstandings, and returning to covenant.  I have it on the door of my office to remind myself and all who enter here of how we agree to relate together. 

One of the reasons I am attracted to Interim Ministry is because it is journeying with people during times of change.  And change has so many aspects:  excitement, uncertainty, grief, creativity, exhaustion and many more feelings.  In fact, there are as many feelings as there are people reading this message.  My goal is to honor all those truths, offer compassion for the discomfort, and help you stay true to your deepest values as you navigate this time.  Please offer yourself and others spacious compassion and curiosity as this new chapter in the life of the Fellowship is unfolding. 

In peace,

Rev. Alex

Dear Members and Friends of the Fellowship:

The contract I signed to serve you includes an agreement that the Board and I will work to support the congregation in multicultural understanding.  I am so excited that Skyla, the Fellowship’s Director of Religious Education, has arranged for you to be able to participate in Mosaic, which is a new UUA program inviting us to reflect on anti-racism, UU culture, and how to transform our best intentions into better understanding.  This is core to the congregation’s acknowledgement (published at the bottom of the order of service each week), saying that we are committed to dismantling oppression and continually learning more.  I look forward to seeing you there on Monday nights in the fall: https://uucorvallis.org/mosaic-antiracism-workshop-for-adults-register-by-9-1/.

I said in last week’s sermon that I would give you the links to creative campaigns that are working to stop deportations.  Even if this isn’t how you will choose to take action, please read about them so you can learn from their strategies.  Perhaps you would like to commit to share the links with three other people?

Ground Avelo is a campaign to stop and disincentivize this airline from secretly deporting people using tax dollars.

Signs of Solidarity provides a toolkit to talk to local business owners about worker safety in case of ICE presence. 

I want to offer you a spiritual music video from time to time in this weekly email.  So, here is one related to this coming Sunday’s sermon on “Dignity of Labor.”  During the sermon I will describe a group of Christian songwriters who felt that more songs were needed to honor not just Sundays, but also the workweek.  Therefore, a few years ago they created an album.  One song particularly moves me, as it describes feelings of never being able to get ahead despite hard work.  The YouTube video of the song is embedded below.  If you listen to it, I hope you will tell me how it made you feel.  If you don’t see the video, click this link to watch it: https://youtu.be/IsoCkFqai8k.

This week included my first board meeting.  I admire the Board’s ability to handle both the macro and micro.  The board members bring a rich variety of skills and insight.  I am excited about how they are tending to the justice work, spiritual work, and financial stability of the congregation.  

As I come into the end of my third week with you, I continue to observe your hospitality, sense of community, and service work.  I loved being outside in the fresh air together on Sunday evening at the grounds work party and enjoying Joyce’s peach rhubarb crisp!  And thank you to everyone who answered the survey that greeted me when I came.  I have already used those tips to make an appointment for an oil change in my car, to find great gluten free food and local produce, and to slip away for quiet time in nature.  And thank you to everyone who helped me get the office set up here for my use.

In a few weeks, college students will be returning.  Please look for ways to reach out, tell them why you value this Fellowship, and offer them a ride, or offer to bike or walk together.

May you find moments of beauty each day,

Rev. Alex McGee
(she/her)
rev.alex.mcgee@uucorvallis.org

Hello dear congregants at UUFC:  What a week it has been in this world, with the extreme heat and more painful political news.  But that discomfort and pain is not the whole picture.  As we continue in our spiritual growth and grounding together, we have opportunities to find a soothing balm as well as deep courage.  Please continue to make time for the things that nourish you spiritually and connect you to others.  I was grateful for the coincidence that my sister was travelling through Oregon this week and I got to go hiking with her as we explored the mountains and waterfalls together.  Here is a photo!

In my second week at the Fellowship, I continue to observe generosity of time, talent, and treasure.  I see so many members getting great joy from doing their part in sustaining this spiritual community.  I was inspired to see the nearly 30 people who came on Wednesday evening to the training coordinated by the Democracy Action Team.  Folks left energized with ideas of the many ways to resist autocracy with focus on what is unique to this location in Oregon, to their unique abilities, and to this spiritual community.  

Next week will be my first board meeting and I will begin working with the board as they provide leadership to you all during this interim time. I will be leading worship with you here for the first time this coming Sunday, and I look forward to being with you there.

In joy and patience,

Rev. Alex McGee, Interim Minister

Rev. Alex McGee began on August 1, 2025 serving as Interim Minister as our Fellowship enters our interim time, following the retirement of Rev. Jill McAllister. 

Greetings UUFC!

What a joy and honor it has been to spend the first week with you.  Thank you for your thoughtful welcomes in so many ways.  I see warmth and enthusiasm here.  Just in a few days I have observed the lovely shared worship leadership on Aug 3; the thoughtful caring of the Coordinating Council; the many hands painting, fixing, carrying, and beautifying the renovated wing.  I have met with the staff and am learning their talents.  

As I look ahead, I am excited to undertake the five tasks of interim ministry with you.  These five areas are a professional standard nationwide, across faith groups, for congregations during a transition time.  They are:

• Reviewing history
• Clarifying identity
• Bolstering leadership
• Strengthening connections locally and nationally
• Looking to the future together

You will be seeing these show up in many opportunities throughout the life of the Fellowship.

What is moving in me in my daily prayer as I journey with you at this moment are three themes from our Universalist heritage:  Faith, Hope and Love.  These enhearten me as I honor the unknowns of this new-to-me place, the heartache of the national and international news, and the stories that each of you are holding.  Faith is something I understand from both my Christian and Yoga experience, as something that comes from beyond us to help us trust there is a wider meaning we cannot yet see.  Hope is something we choose so we can step forward.  And Love is a current that flows through us connecting us to others with compassion and joy.  I look forward to hearing from you all what is moving in you spiritually at this time.

—Namaste, Rev. Alex McGee

August 7, 2025

There is no way to include everything we’ve done together, but I want to begin a list here.  And perhaps a better way to describe it is who we’ve been together….

We renewed the mission of the Fellowship – Explore, Love, Act — and birthed the Council structure from the mission. The Justice Council took form, we began to work collaboratively, and our impacts increased.  Stewardship increased.  We professionalized more of our staff.  We renewed our pastoral care structures and created the Fellowship Care and Support Team. We divested from fossil fuels and invested in local solar energy projects. We continued a partnership with Unitarians in Transylvania and increased our global connections to the Philippines and Burundi. We welcomed and supported refugees from Burundi and El Salvador.  We became a Sanctuary Church.  We created the Justice Outreach Fund to make grants, and leveraged one of those grants to help create Unity Shelter.  We created an Emergency Aid Fund.  We invited and enjoyed UU singer-songwriters.  We welcomed Kirtan as a form of worship at the Fellowship, and later Dance Planet.  We collaborated with a local Zen Buddhist sangha, then sold them the house next door and became neighbors and partners.

We re-started project to renovate and expand our buildings; in a successful capital campaign we raised more than 2 million dollars. We allowed ourselves to change course in the building project several times, for good reasons, and finally we have completed the renovation of our classroom wing.  The Grounds Stewards program increased creativity and participation on our grounds and began a process of strategic planning.   WE SURVIVED THE PANDEMIC.  We became much more technologically diverse.  We made commitments to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and sought training to learn more skills toward anti-racism and multi-culturalism. We became more intentional about strengthening inter-generational connections. Together we learned new ways to tend to grief, and depression.  In worship we focused on annual themes including Faithfulness, Courage, Deepening, World Religions, and more.  We created connect-up activities and groups. We welcomed new members.  We gathered to share the sadness of deaths among us.  We weathered conflicts and learned to focus on right relations.  We created a disruptive behavior policy, a Right Relations Team, and a new Covenant of Right Relations. We partnered with the Mid-Willamette Valley Trans Network.   We looked forward to, and appreciated, our Sunday music and musicians, weekly flower arrangements, and the ministry of our coffee crews. We reviewed what worship means to us…….   And so much more.  What do you remember and appreciate?

Another huge blow to the health and well-being of Americans – and others, and the Earth — this week.  With the approval in Congress of this terrible bill –  called ‘Beautiful’ as an indicator of cultural insanity — an era of cruelty,  greed, exclusion, vengeance, inequity and injustice is re-affirmed. These are clearly the values of those who dominate the power structure of our country right now.  But dominant values are not the only values, and never have been.  We must take some time to feel the pain and the fear, we must take time to grieve and lament, and then we must find our footing again and return to love.  

To return to love is to be ever more clear about our values of justice and compassion, inclusion and generosity, reason and wisdom and peace.  To examine our own lives ever more closely and deeply to discover our own contradictions, our own edges for growth.  To take risks for our values, to join voices with others for our values, to practice and teach and embody our values without ceasing. 

As a good next step, tomorrow, Monday July 7, you’re invited to join in a workshop on Creative Lament – a form of medicine for these times – offered by our Religious Exploration (RE) department.   Registration is required.  See This Week At UUFC for more information.