RE Newsletter for October

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” ― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

Greetings, Families!

The soggy, foggy season of all things cozy is finally upon us! Between sipping soup and reading Pumpkinheads to the kids, please take a moment to catch up on your Religious Exploration news and add some events to your calendar.

Please note that this is the last month that this newsletter will be sent to last year’s registered families. If you are not sure whether you have registered your child for this new year in RE, please reach out to me, and I’ll help get you all squared away so that you don’t miss any of the fun!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

10/12 Monthly Family Breakfast is Back! register HERE

10/16 Parent Peer Support Group is Back! Register HERE

10/25 Youth Overnight: registration information was sent home and to parents’ inboxes.

10/26 Teams and Councils Trick or Treat (wear your costumes to service!)

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.

You want to know what’s going on at the Fellowship and what different groups there are to be a part of. Your kids want to have some fun and wear their costumes. Okay, let’s face it. You want to have fun too! That’s why we’re hosting the annual Teams and Councils Trick-or-Treat event after the service on October 26th.

Wear your costumes to the service and plan to hang out after to wander around and check out the information, goodies, and games presented by many of the wonderful groups, teams, and councils that keep us up to good trouble at the Fellowship and beyond!

Registered OMG! youth and their friends are invited to this year’s Fall Overnight at UUFC! As always, we’ve invited youth from Eugene, Salem, and Willamette Falls congregations to join us, but it’s still unknown as to whether they have enough volunteer support to get their youth here this year.

Please ASAP, but no later than October 8th. Registration information went home with youth and was included in the email version of this newsletter. If you have not received it and are interested in registering yout youth please reach out to Skyla at dre@uucorvallis.org.

We will have a pizza dinner, and social hour, followed by a trip to the Melon Patch corn maze, and then come warm up with a candelight worship before bed. More details can be found in the Registration link!

By request, we took September off of our regular family gatherings, but it’s time to get back into the swing of things with the return of the Family Breakfast and the Parent Peer Support Group.

The Breakfast will be sticking with its 2nd Sunday Schedule this year, so please come join us on the 12th at 8:45. Registering each month helps us plan, but please come even if you forget to register.

The Parent Peer Support Group (with free childcare!) will start on the 3rd Thursday in October, and will be on 2nd Thursdays beginning in November. You don’t want to miss this first session back on October 16th! Register anew with this link to be kept up to date on changes regarding this group.

All of our Sunday morning groups for school-aged children are using the Mosaic antiracism curriculum this year. One of the upcoming lessons involves the use of candy. Because we don’t generally hand out candy in RE, I want to give our parents a heads up and a chance to share their family norms and concerns around sweets so that we can make sure all children are included and their dietary preferences are honored. These lessons will be taking place in Spirit Play on October 19th and in the Seeker Space on November 9th.

Kids will sanitize their hands and then sort and handle various candies throughout the lesson.  Each child will be invited to taste 2 pieces of candy during class time, and the rest will be divvied up and sent home with consenting parents at pickup. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to me!

I’m so pleased to share that a new RE team has formed with the focus on safety! Below is a copy of what they shared in the monthly journal. Because there is information specifically for parents, I want to make sure you have a chance to encounter it, even if you aren’t in the habit of reading the journal.


We are fortunate to have a growing Religious Exploration program here at UUFC! To support this program, we have formed a Safe Congregations Support Team made up of parents and other members of our fellowship. Its purpose is to bolster the safety of all who engage with Religious Exploration programs by partnering with the Director of Religious Exploration to support uniform policy and procedure implementation and execution, consult on ambiguous background check results or interpersonal conflicts that have the potential to disrupt RE community-building efforts, and lovingly invite RE volunteers and participants back into covenant when our safety policies and procedures have been violated.

As part of our role of fostering the safest environment possible for our UUFC families, we would like to remind parents and guardians that RE staff and volunteers do not supervise children during the coffee hour after the service or at any time they are not engaged directly in RE programs. Please stay mindful of your children’s whereabouts and safety during social gatherings and bear in mind that, as an inclusive community that values transformation, we welcome strangers and individuals with diverse histories into our midst.

If you have a concern that needs to be addressed by our team, please contact Kyle Cupp, chairperson of the RE Safe Congregations Support team. Additionally, if you are passionate about safety and have skills and time to share, we’d love to hear from you!

If you have any unmet needs for support, unanswered questions about how or why we do what we do in RE, please reach out any time! Our offerings exist because families share their dreams and needs, and we rely on your partnership!

May we hold Love at the center of all we do together in this new RE and beyond!

Queerly Beloved meeting, Sunday, 10/12

Come to the next meeting of Queerly Beloved on Sunday, October 12 from 4-6 PM in the Social Hall! Queerly Beloved is an LGBTQIA+ group offering a safe space for individuals to foster queer community. Allies, friends, and family members are also welcome. We hope you will join us for talk, listening, connection, community.

Join the Choir

The UUFC Choir meets every Wednesday at 7:00 PM in the Sanctuary and is open to anyone – whether you have musical experience or not. There is no audition.

We sing a variety of pieces – each with unique style, instrumentation, and cultural significance – which allows for diverse musical exploration and personal expression.

The Choir is a great way to be of service to our Fellowship community…. and it’s FUN! Contact Choir Director Steven Evans-Renteria for more information.

Elders Thriving in Community, 10/8

Aging Successfully in community
Aging Successfully in community

Listen to a panel of UUFC members hosted by the Elders Thriving in Community team on Wednesday, October 8 at 3 PM in the Sanctuary. Saying YES to Life even when it’s hard: a panel of older UUFC members will share their perspectives on staying engaged and connected, thriving & finding joy, throughout life’s changes & challenges.

UUFC Harvest Festival, 10/12

Come and get your pumpkins, preserves, and tie dyed T-shirts, all while supporting the Perla family and the Stamp Fund for the Democracy Action Team. The festival will be in the Fellowship parking lot after the worship service on Sunday, October 12.

No Kings Protest, 10/18

Join us on Saturday, October 18 at 12 PM at the Benton County Courthouse for the No Kings protest!

A little worried about recent developments? What we know is that the only way out of this slide to dictatorship is for everyone to get involved. THAT is what has stopped a tyrant. And only that. No one else is going to save us, as much as we watch and hope things will change. So WE must make the 18th the largest protest ever on the planet. So each ONE bring ONE (or ten) to the October 18th protest.

For more information and resources, visit https://www.nokings.org/.

UUFC Holiday Fair, 12/6

Save the Date

It’s that time of year again to start thinking about the Holiday Fair! This year’s fair will be on Saturday, December 6th from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Fellowship. All are welcome – UUFC members, friends, and the larger community (including Albany, Adair, Independence, Lebanon, Alsea, and Philomath). This event builds connections between UUFC and the larger community, plus it’s a ton of fun!

UUFC Vendors Wanted

Are you interested in being an artisan vendor for this event? If so, please email holiday.fair@uucorvallis.org and tell us what you wish to sell by October 5.

Many Volunteers Needed

We will need people to post flyers around the community, bakers for the baked goods sale, swag makers, people to donate pots of soup for the café, greeters, musicians who will play for one hour in the foyer, cashiers, respite givers for the vendors, and people to help out with kids activities. Sign up opportunities coming soon.

Join the Signs of Solidarity team

We stand with immigrant families sign
We stand with immigrant families sign

Members of the Democracy Action Team are collaborating with Benton County Indivisible and Standing Up for Racial Justice to place signs of solidarity supporting immigrants around Corvallis. If you would like to join this effort, contact Karen J. Or you can print out your own copies of the posters and take them to local businesses! You can find the digital poster files here: https://brandfolder.com/indivisibleproject/signs-of-solidarity.

Speaking of Democracy Online Discussion Series (Sept 16 – Oct 21)

The Statewide UU Advocacy organization, Oregon UU Voices for Justice is sponsoring weekly online gatherings for UUs to meet to share and learn about actions that each of us can take to save our Democracy. Beginning Sept. 16, we will gather on zoom each week on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM. There will be time to acknowledge what we are experiencing in the moment and also to get resources and information about topics concerning our current moment of democratic backsliding.

Email Robin Lancaster for the link or join the Democracy Action Team in person for a watch party in the Fellowship Library. We will continue to learn and listen about how our Fellow UU Congregations are responding to this difficult moment in American civic life.

Sept. 16 The UUA Action of Immediate Witness: Faithful Defiance of Authoritarianism

Sept. 23 Characteristics of Successful Pro-Democracy Movements

Sept. 30 Boycotts and Economic resistance

Oct 7 Digital Safety

Oct. 14 Mis and Dis information

Oct. 21 Advocacy