weekly announcements

Climate Action Opportunities 10/29

From the Climate Action Team:

There is no more important climate work than the influencing of legislation and policy, whether at the national, state, or local level. Climate Action Opportunities, refreshed weekly on Saturdays, provides three or four curated, quick opportunities to do just that. We have a list of organizations whose calls to action we amplify, and the number from each organization.

To help assess the engagement of UUFC members and friends in faith-based climate action and to encourage such action, please anonymously share the number of the actions below you take this week using this Climate Action Form. Optionally, you may  anonymously also share other recent climate action. 

Sat 28 Oct

Columbia Riverkeeper

GTN Xpress Project: On 10/19/23, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorized a huge expansion of fracked gas in the Northwest. Grassroots organizations, community groups, Tribal nations, and dozens of elected officials across the Northwest are joining forces to push back on FERC’s approval of GTN Xpress, a proposal by TC Energy to push more gas through its aging GTN pipeline.  Our coalition is going to challenge FERC’s decision to approve the GTN Xpress project.  Sign the petition to challenge FERC’s decision. 

Environment Oregon

Single Use Packaging: Walmart is America’s largest grocer by revenue — but far too many shoppers are coming home with a pile of single-use plastic packaging that they didn’t ask for. Too often, this plastic packaging ends up as waste, clogging landfills and polluting the environment. Walmart can change its packaging practices and set a precedent for others to follow.  Add your name to Urge Walmart to put wildlife over waste

Interfaith Power & Light

Western Arctic drilling: Oil companies are pushing for more drilling in the fragile Western Arctic landscape. .As people of faith, we have a moral responsibility to care for our Sacred Earth. We must ensure these irreplaceable landscapes are free from destructive oil and gas development. Tell the Bureau of Land Management: No drilling in the Arctic.

Virtual GA 2024 Theme Announcement

Unitarian Universalist Association Banner

The theme for 2024 Virtual General Assembly is Love Unites, Stories Ignite. Virtual GA participants will receive:

  • Memorable, high-impact content for faith formation, with an easy and accessible experience
  • Sense of belonging in the online community, with flexible approaches for a variety of needs
  • Renewed connection to the wider faith of Unitarian Universalism.
  • Inspiration and support to carry forward to your local congregations and beyond.

The 63rd General Assembly will take place virtually Thur., June 20 through Sun., June 23, 2024.

Thank You! 10/29

Thank You.

~Thank-you to Michael Hughes and Russ Karow for taking steps toward our vision of a renewed campus, by planting native sedge (and hopefully camas) in the small wetlands that crosses the back garden.

~Thank you to Susan Sanford, Claudia Hall, and Anna Coffman for working to create several sacred spaces, indoors and outdoors, to be places for centering and reflection, for contemplation and quieting, for nurture of mind and body. One of those places will be an altar to invite reflection, in the library.

Wheel of the Year – Samhain/ Halloween 10/29/2023

All Ages Together

We’ve moved into the season of longer nights and shorter days, and we arrive at the point on the Wheel of the Year called Samhain and Halloween. We’ll honor this season, considering our lives within in, considering the ancestors who made our lives possible and live in us still, considering our connectedness within the ever-turning wheel of birth and death.

All are invited to come in costume, if you like, and to join in Trick or Treat with UUFC teams and councils following the service.

Monthly Hikes

a group of hikers stands atop a hill

Last Saturdays of the month, meet with Jim Wagner and other Unitarian friends for a casual hike in the Corvallis area. These are suitable for all ages. The intensity and difficulty of the hike will vary depending on interest. Meeting time will vary. Contact us to sign up and join the group! Connect@uucorvallis.org

March 2024 Hike Info:

March Connect Up will be the northern leg of Section 36 Loop in McDonald Forest. This is mature forest along the upper part of Calloway Creek. Early spring wild flowers can often be seen along this trail. Walk is about 4 miles and gains about 600′. About 1/4 of the distance is on trail and the rest on forest road. So, keep Saturday, March 30 (day before Easter) open! More info will be sent to the email list.

Brilliant Minds Workshop 1/20

The Brilliant Minds Workshop on January 20th, will invite participants to explore and share their personal experiences with neurodivergence and psydivergence. Please consider taking this very brief survey to assist the planning team in their efforts to meet the most immediate needs of our community.

Brilliant Minds Workshop Registration

YRUU Corn Maze 10/29

Our Fellowship youth group will be traveling to Eugene after the Trick or Treat event on October 29th to join other regional UU youth in a Corn Maze Social.

If you plan to attend, please register ASAP at https://uufc.breezechms.com/form/ecbe1e2

Thanksgiving Ideas?

No one has responded to an invitation to help organize a Thanksgiving Festevent Supper, so far. Therefore there is no plan for a Fellowship event on Thanksgiving Day. Are there other ideas? A morning walk? Hosting small groups in homes? Sharing leftovers on Friday? Or? Please contact Rev. Jill if you’re interested in helping make plans.

Thank You 10/22

Thank You.

~Thank you to Alison Smith for donating a new glass-topped stove and oven for the main kitchen, replacing the oldest of our two old ovens.

~Thank you to Jamie Petts, Ginny Gibson, Steve Ferrell, Michael Hughes, and Scott Bruslind for obtaining and installing a new refrigerator/freezer to replace the small freezer in the social hall which stopped working.

~Thank you to John Myers and Louise Ferrell for making a start on an oral history project for the Fellowship.

Daily Practice: A Weekly Reminder 10/22/2023

Once a week on Sundays, we enter together into a time of reflection and centering, as we prepare to share and hold sorrows and joys among us. I often note, as we begin that practice, that centering involves discerning what is most important and what is not most important. Perhaps that distinction is obvious, but more likely it is not. Worship, for us, in general, is an ongoing practice of this aim – to discern and lift up what is most important.

It is easy to believe that what we think is important in any given moment is actually important, because we think it is! We know that is not always true. How often do we carried away with an idea – such as “I have to clean the house before I can invite friends over,” or “I have to get this project done, and then I’ll rest,” or “I have to send these few emails and texts before I give my full attention to my child,” or many other similar ideas which we assume are the most important things – but really aren’t?

The tendency to give most attention to things that are not really important is common among us, and well-practiced. It is accentuated in turbulent times such as these, when it feels easier and safer to focus on making dinner plans, or criticizing a spouse for small things, or complaining about friends or relatives, than to pause and acknowledge war and more local forms of destruction. Of course there are the small things of daily life and personal preference to deal with, and they do have consequences! The challenge is in assuming that they are the most important things.

This is part of the human condition, to be sure. We are not the first nor the last humans to avert our eyes and ears and hearts from much of what is truly important. We are not the first to be afraid, or worried, or eager to let ourselves be distracted. As in every generation, the work is ours to do – to learn to distinguish the most important things, and then to respond as well as we can. We begin again every day – the daily practice.