Religious Exploration

IMPORTANT UPDATE for Brilliant Minds

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An incorrect registration link went out in the weeklies and the newsfeed for the Brilliant Minds Workshop. If you believe you have already registered via one of those , please take a look at THIS registration link and verify that it is the one you used. If you signed up on the clipboard and or via the bulletin board QR code, you are already good to go! Thank you so much for your interest in this offering!

Inquirer’s Series – Every Sunday

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This week: Roots with Skyla King-Christison. Inquirer’s Series is a series of 9 hour-long sessions designed especially for newcomers seeking more information about UUism and the Fellowship AND open to all others who are interested. Sessions take place every Sunday at 11:45 AM Room 8.

Upcoming session dates:

2024

Jan 7 Principles & Sources* with Skyla King-Christison

Jan 14  Building & Grounds with John Bailey 

Jan 21   Minister’s Q&A* with Jill McAllister

Jan 28 Lifespan Faith Development with Dawn Dirks

Feb 4 Worship & Liturgical Year with Jill McAllister

Feb 11 Social Justice, Community Action & Connect Up with Karen Josephson

Feb 18 Care and Support & Chalice Circles with Sandy Piper

Feb 25 Membership 101* with Bobbi Bailey

Mar 3 Roots with Skyla King-Christison

Camp Blue Boat Save the Date

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Mark your calendars because Camp Blue Boat is back for middle and high school youth!

Save the Date: June 30 – July 5, 2024

Location: Camp N-Sid-Sen in Harrison, ID*

Campers experience community, spirituality, justice & equality with UU youth from throughout the region and have TONS OF FUN on the shores of gorgeous Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Camper registration will open in February!! We will share the registration link here when it becomes available.

Inquirer’s Series – Every Sunday

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Question Mark

This week: Membership 101 with Bobbi Bailey. Inquirer’s Series is a series of 9 hour-long sessions designed especially for newcomers seeking more information about UUism and the Fellowship AND open to all others who are interested. Sessions take place every Sunday at 11:45 AM Room 8.

Upcoming session dates:

2023

Dec 31 Roots with Skyla King-Christison

2024

Jan 7 Principles & Sources* with Skyla King-Christison

Jan 14 Minister’s Q&A* with Jill McAllister

Jan 21 Building & Grounds with John Bailey

Jan 28 Lifespan Faith Development with Dawn Dirks

Feb 4Worship & Liturgical Year with Jill McAllister

Feb 11 Social Justice, Community Action & Connect Up with Karen Josephson

Feb 18 Care and Support & Chalice Circles with Sandy Piper

Feb 25 Membership 101* with Bobbi Bailey

Mar 3 Roots with Skyla King-Christison

Child Dedication 12/24

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The members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis ceremonially welcome babies and older children into this world, and into the community which holds them, offering our lifelong commitment to the nurture of each child. This dedication is a joyful ritual which affirms that each young soul is a gift, and which celebrates the covenant of family and community.

Contact Skyla by December 21st if you would like for your child to be dedicated during the morning service on Christmas Eve.

Free Mental Health Film Screening 1/18 @6:30

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The Religious Exploration Staff is aware that our children, youth, and young adults are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis and we acknowledge the lack of mental health resources available to families in our community. As such, we are elevating our commitment to educating ourselves and expanding our program’s capacity to hold space for children, parents, and caregivers to connect with one another in mutual support.

One of the first offerings we present in this a screening of What I Wish My Parents Knew, a film by Tell My Story, designed as a mental wellness tool to help parents better understand how to support the mental health of their children.

The event will be a two-part, 90-minute experience with a group viewing followed by a discussion facilitated by a licensed mental health professional. Pre-registration is requested.

This film is not available for general public streaming, but this event is open to the public. We ask that viewers be over 18. On-site childcare will be provided free of charge by a team of experienced and background-checked adults.

If you plan to attend, we recommend watching this talk by the creator of the film to prepare. PLEASE NOTE: themes of self-harm and suicide are present in both the talk and the film.

Direct questions to DRE@dreuucorvallis-org

Post-Holiday Break! 12/28 @1PM

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This time of year can be a lot for the ritual keepers known as parents. To honor all you do, we’d like to offer you a break! Drop off school-aged children in the social hall from 1-4 on December 28th. We’ll have a thank you card writing workshop (with helpers for those who haven’t mastered the pen yet), make snacks, and settle in for a movie while you take a few hours to recover from the holiday hustle. To make the most of the thank you card workshop, please send your child with a list of specific people & gifts for which to offer thanks. Pre-registration is requested at bit.ly/postholidaybreak

Spiritual Practices Workshop Collective Lectionary

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The Spiritual Practices Adult RE workshop has wrapped until April. Thanks to all who participated – we learned a lot together!

Check out the RE new page to see our book recommendations for your personal lectionary and some of our art journaling commitments for practice.

We recently completed Part 1 of the Adult RE Spiritual Practices workshop and it was a true delight!

In our time together, we discussed and defined spiritual practice, explored how to pray (even if the G-word makes you itchy), experienced various forms of meditation, mindful walking and eating, tried our hand at the ancient practice of devotional reading called lectio divina, and practiced art journaling our commitments to daily-ish spiritual practice that we will work on individually until we come together for Part 2 of this series in April.

Several of you have expressed interest in attending this workshop during the day so that you don’t have to drive at night. If you would like to see a round of the Spiritual Practices workshop offered on Mondays at 9:30 AM, email me (dre@uucorvallis.org). If enough people are interested, we’ll launch a day-time workshop in February.

As a gift from our Spiritual Practices graduates to the wider Fellowship, we offer this list of book recommendations that you might choose to add to your own personal lectionary. If you don’t have a personal lectionary, or don’t even know what that means, you should consider joining the next round of the Spiritual Practices workshop!

Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman
recommended by Sherri Argyres


Love Poems from God by Ana Huang, Eden O’Neill, Ghassan Zeineddine
recommended by Sherri Argyres


Heart to Heart by the Dalai Lama and Patrick McDonnell
recommended by Bonnie Morihara


Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Anita Barrows & Macy
recommended by Rebecca Bedell


Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
recommended by Heather Thomas


Untamed by Glennon Doyle
recommended by Heather Thomas


Beauty by John O’donohue
recommended by Jay Coffman


A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World by Thomas Moore
recommended by Skyla King-Christison


An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor
recommended by Skyla King-Christison


The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices by Casper ter Kuile
recommended by Diane Weisner


Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
recommended by Anya Ballinger


Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land by Rabbi Shefa Gold
recommended by Melinda Sayavedra

Adult Coming of Age

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Adult Coming of Age is returning to UUFC on Monday evenings, January 8th-February 12, from 5:30 to 7 in Room 7. Unitarian Universalism requires you to be an active participant in building your own identity, a task that sometimes requires letting go or “unlearning” painful lessons from our past. What does it mean to “be you?” What role does your community and lived experience play in constructing a religious identity that matches your unique journey? Together, we’ll explore these topics and more. All are welcome. Pre-registration at bit.ly/AdultCoA is requested.

Prayer with the Family

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November’s tool in the Family Faith Formation Toolkit is prayer! Pop over to the RE news page and read about the importance of prayer (even when you’re not cozy with the idea of God), a short and easy formula for prayer (in case you’re feeling rusty), and links to inspiring resources, all to help you grow in strength as the spiritual leader of your family!

Prayer can feel like a loaded word, especially if you have an itchy relationship with the term “god.” Still, children have an innate desire to connect with something bigger than themselves, and parents and grandparents are their best spiritual guides. Even if you’re not a fan of the G word, you can teach your child how to pray.

Why pray? Many studies by secular scientists find that prayer can result in reduced anxiety and increased calm and well-being. It’s a great tool to have in your family’s spiritual toolbox!

Not sure how to get started with prayer? Back in the Summer, Reverend Jill McAllister gave us a simple formula for prayer that anyone can use.

  • address your source of strength
  • name your complaint
  • confess your trust
  • add a petition
  • express praise & gratitude

EX: Dear Spirit of Love, this world & it news cycles are too much to bear! Love is the only thing I know that can fix this. Please blanket this world in your healing power. Thank you for being a force for good that’s always available.

“I’d go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky…up…up…up into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness and then I’d just feel a prayer.”

That’s just one way to pray. I was twelve the first time I heard Anne Shirley’s ideas about prayer. I knew immediately, “That’s the right way to pray!” For me, anyway.

Some people like to pray with ancient language written in far away places. Some prefer to chant prayers or sing them out loud. Some people like blessings, like those written by Kate Bowler in her book Bless the Lives We Actually Have.

Do you remember how you learned to pray? Who taught you? How did you feel? Consider sharing that experience with your children or grandchildren. Remember, there’s no wrong way to connect with the sacred.

A member of our recent Spiritual Practices workshop found their way to my inbox with a request. “Can we take the word sacred out of the workshop so that people who don’t believe in God will feel welcome?” I want to share with you what I shared with this kind-hearted soul. One definition for “the Sacred” is God. Yes. But another definition I’ve seen used is that sacred refers to anything worthy of awe and wonder. You don’t have to believe in God to experience things that are larger than yourself and inspire a sense of awe. Awe is part of the human experience, and prayer is a way to commune with that. What better gift could we give our families than a framework they can use to regularly connect with the sacred?

Homework for Caregivers

If it’s been a while since you prayed, try out Jill’s 5-step plan for prayer and see how it goes. Pay attention to how you feel in your body when you practice prayer. Do you feel tense? Do scratchy feelings well up reminding you of ways that prayer has been weaponized against you in the past? Are you reminded of people who treat prayer like a divine vending machine, always asking for things to be just the way they want them? Or maybe you feel a melting sense of relief when you connect to something that makes you feel small. Maybe it’s comforting to be reminded that you’re not responsible for everything. That something or someone else can handle some of the care of the world and its people.

As you weigh how things are within you, consider your hopes for the children in your life. Are you hopeful that they can connect with their smallness as well as their power? Are there ways you can help your child voice their needs and wants without the entitlement that comes from the ATM-style prayer? Is there a value, to you, in this kind of practice?

These big questions are best when explored with a parenting partner, a friend, or a mentor. Consider calling up someone in your circle of support and asking them to discuss them with you. When you feel ready, discuss them with your kiddos. You might be surprised what you learn.

And, as always, if you want to pop in and discuss prayer or anything else, my door is always open!