From the Minister

June 19, 2026
Rev. Alex McGee, serving as Interim Minister

Dear Congregation:

I am writing to lift up three things right now in the life of your UU Fellowship:  history, right relations, and UU connections beyond this town.

First, please take seriously the responsibility as a member to reflect on the history of UUFC.  You have a wonderful opportunity coming up on June 28 or July 16 to hear and see a thoughtful and informative presentation from the Transitions Team.  The Transitions Team is tasked with aiding in the interim process, which includes considering what pressures, opportunities and crossroads affected the Fellowship that you are in today.  I have been impressed over the past six months to see the hundreds of hours that this team has put into gathering UUFC to offer you.  Please look for a chance to talk about UUFC history with the Team members:  Russ Anderson, Laurie Reed, Sheryl Stuart, Rachel Houtman, and Robin Lancaster.

Second, this congregation has utilized a Right Relations Team in the past to help with certain situations.  Last Winter, the Board activated a Right Relations Team to be maintained as a regular resource for listening and facilitating, as well as sharing tools with the congregation.  Right now, the members are Susan Christie, Claudia Hall, Joyce Marvel-Benoist, and Mark Aron, working in conjunction with the Minister.  All are skilled in interpersonal relations, and in addition, are looking at UUA resources designed to strengthen Right Relations Teams.  If you would like to access their assistance, please let me know and I will make the connection, or reach out to one of them and they will circle me in.

Third, I am so rejuvenated by attending General Assembly and UU Ministry Days online this week!  I see such amazingly thoughtful processes, such as having five GA support teams:

• Covenant Team to help when relations are ruptured
• Systemic Justice Team to track structural improvements for future events
• Accessibility Team to reduce barriers to participation
• Chaplaincy Team to hold spiritual space for individuals
• Process Team to report at the end of each session how they observed inclusion, lack of inclusion, or other variations from the democratic goals 

So, I wonder…what if UUFC had all five of these teams?  Is that a dream you share?  Do you already achieve some of these in other ways?  I think you do.

Please mark your calendar for June 23-27, 2027 to attend General Assembly in San Jose, CA, or online from here in Corvallis.

My heart is bolstered by a sermon given on Wednesday by the Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, who said “belonging means staying in relationship despite disappointment.”  He defined accountability as “mutual and liberating relationship with one another.”  He reflected on times when he was frustrated and let down by Unitarian Universalism.  He observed:  “the most important part of the story is not that I stayed, but the people who helped me stay.”  And so I ask you in the UU Fellowship of Corvallis: how are you practicing belonging, accountability, and helping others stay?

With care,
Rev. Alex McGee
June 2026

From the Minister, June 12, 2026
by Rev. Alex McGee

One of the greatest gifts one human can give another is the recognition of being seen.  This is why babies thrive under attention from parents and community.  This is why you, or I, under duress, do better when we can share vulnerably with another person and feel “seen.”

As Unitarian Universalists, we can offer this gift to each other and people in society who often have to make trade-offs about being seen.  In June, for Pride month, we seek to make space in which people can bring their whole LGBTQ selves to UUFC.  

Further, the Juneteenth acknowledgement reminds us of how many people lived enslaved lives, and then had to wait to be seen as free.

This matter of “being seen” has arisen in a new form in the past week in our country.  The Department of Defense changed the forms that people fill out when enlisting in the military.  No longer can a person check a box to claim the identity of “Unitarian Universalist.”  Now, they are categorized as “Other.”  

Let us not let this pass unnoticed.  Please reach out to the military that you know who are also UU.  Tell them that you see them!  And read more in this statement from the UUA: https://www.uua.org/pressroom/press-releases/uu-military-chaplains-2026

Dear UUFC Congregation:

Wow!  One year ago this month I was reading all about your congregation, from afar.  I examined statistics about your history, your membership, your RE program, and financial matters.  I looked at how many ministers have served you, how the building was built, and milestones important in your congregational life.  I tried to imagine being with you all in role of Interim Minister.  How lucky I was then, to get to interview with the Interim Search committee, who were warm, friendly, organized, and clear.  I then spent many, many more hours, researching Corvallis as a place to live.

This kind of imagining is powerful.  Because you all set a vision, and I was open to a vision, our paths were able to meet and align.  

Please ponder this kind of power.  Please consider the kind of careful preparation that creates a solid, factual foundation, from which the winds of the universe can blow to attract positive energy.

Perhaps there is an area of your life right now where you would like to “get your house in order” and take stock of who you are.  

With care and wonder,

Rev. Alex

Along with Spring comes Mothers Day, and I want you to know that I honor the many ways different people experience Mother’s Day.  Please be gentle with yourself as you experience this holiday if it is a difficult one for you.  I wish for you to find nourishment from this poem (below) by Rev. Leah Ongiri (on the staff at the UU congregation in Portland), as she names the complexity of motherhood.  This poem will also be read aloud during the service on Sunday.  Remember you can join by Zoom if you can’t make it to the building.
With care, Rev. Alex

rev.alex.mcgee@uucorvallis.org

The Complexity of Motherhood

On Mother’s Day, let us mark how beautiful and complex it can be to mother and be mothered:
To those who have mothered, we thank you.
To those who rejoice in the work, the role, the presence of mothering and mothers, we celebrate with you.
To those who are in the thick of parenting children of any age, we appreciate you.
To those who experience loss through infertility, abortion, miscarriage, adoption or running away, we mourn with you.
To those who have lost their mothers, we grieve with you.
To those who have endured abuse at the hands of their mothers, we acknowledge you.
To those who experience pain at the marking of this day, we witness you.
To those who are single moms, grandmoms, stepmoms, foster moms, adoptive moms, mentor moms and spiritual moms, we need you.
And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising, we anticipate with you.
May we reflect with gratitude on the wide spectrum of mothering that happens in our lives and in our communities.

By Leah Ongiri

April 19, 2026
By the Rev. Alex McGee

Dear UUFC:

This past Thursday, the president of the Unitarian Universal Association sent a letter to US government leaders objecting to the Christian nationalist reasoning behind the current military actions in Iran. You can see the text here.

Please consider this alongside the perspectives of this Sunday’s guest speaker, Logan Isaac. As a military veteran and Christian theologian, he has important perspectives on war from a liberal religious angle. The voices of veterans need to shape the liberal religious responses to current veteran issues. He encouraging us to work for policy changes. You can watch the service video here.

Our Unitarian Universalist values encourage each of us to search for truth and meaning. May the UUA President’s letter and Logan’s sermon help us with that exploration. May we take effective action.

In peace,
Rev. Alex
April 19, 2026

Dear Congregation:

When the world is feeling unstable, it can be good to focus on what we are connected to as a whole.  I am motivated by the many endeavors that our Fellowship contributes to on a national level through the Unitarian Universalist Association.  Here is a “State of the Union” report.

https://www.uua.org/pressroom/ingoodfaith/state-association-key-themes

After you read or watch it, I will be curious to hear from you what moves and motivates you!

With care,
Alex

Dear UUFC:

This coming Tuesday, March 31, is International Transgender Day of Visibility.  Here at UU Fellowship of Corvallis, what can that mean?  To begin to explore an answer, I offer these words from Nat Esparza, who serves on the staff of the Unitarian Universalist Association in the Southern Region:

If our communities are acts of creation—who are we imagining into them? 
And who are we leaving out?

If that question makes you uncomfortable—good. Discomfort is where change begins.

Whatever you do next, let it be real. 
Let it be rooted in love. 
Let it be imperfect, human, and ongoing.

Because that’s what true community care looks like. 
That’s what liberation demands.

We’ve been visible. Now it’s time to be heard, to be trusted, and to shape what comes next.

In the end, we all want the same thing— 
To feel less alone. 
To be seen. 
To know that our stories, our lives, and our futures truly matter.

I encourage you to read Nat’s whole article here.

And let’s keep seeing, listening, feeling, living…together.

In peace,
Rev. Alex

Planting seeds.

Planting seeds of relationship.
Planting seeds of relationship for a group that will trust.
Planting seeds of a relationship among a Search Team that will listen, then go out and work hard and come back with a new possibility for UUFC.

Planting seeds like coins in a piggy bank.
Planting coins, one by one, week by week, month by month.
Like the seeds bring fruit over time, the coins bring new possibilities over time.

Planting seeds like prayers.
Planting hopes and visions.
Planting a YES.

It is the season.
The season for forming a Search Committee.
The season for a pledge drive.
The season for listening inwardly, then acting outwardly.

Blessed be.

from Rev. Alex McGee, for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, as you enter into your Search Team formation process in March 2026, and your pledge drive for the 2026-2027 year, beginning March 22

February 20, 2026
From Rev. Alex McGee

I’m envisioning beautiful, dainty pinky-white cherry blossoms floating down over all of you at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis.  Spring will come soon, and with it will come change. Indeed, the petals of the blossoms will float off the trees in the breeze.  I envision each of them symbolizing a blessing.  One of the blessings is patience. Patience to live fully in each moment without over-focusing on the outcome of the ministry search process.  The other blessing is integrity. Integrity means to be integrated within yourself, with other members of the congregation, with your community, and with your vision for the future. With these two blessings of patience and integrity, I envision you having a beautiful experience in the year to come as you live into the ministry search process.

SEARCH TIMELINE:

Spring 2026: Congregation works together to elect search committee that they trust to represent their future vision to a ministerial candidate.

Summer 2026: Search committee begins working together 5 to 15 hours a week for the next nine months.

Fall 2026: Search committee gathers information to present to potential candidates.

Winter 2027: Search committee confidentially interviews a few candidates at sites outside of Corvallis.

Spring 2027: Search committee presents one final candidate. Candidate visits on site to meet congregation. Congregation votes, and candidate is only likely to come if over 90-95% of the membership vote yes. If this proces does not lead to a candidate approved by the congregation, the congregation may form a new search committee for the next year.