The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis
Come rest in loving vibrations and learn useful tools in voice, chant, refined mantra, raga and breath that will leave us feeling refreshed, renewed, grateful and filled within. We’ll be meeting in Room 7, 10 AM – 1 PM.
Find Balance, Peace and Joy in Chant and Sacred Sound.
https://GinaSalaCorvallisKirtanandWorkshop.eventbrite.com
The DAT is proud to announce that letter writing is officially back! Join us in person on Tuesdays (in the UUFC library) and on Zoom (link HERE) on Thursdays – both at 5:30 pm. We’ll write to voters in Pennsylvania asking them to retain State Supreme Justices who oppose partisan gerrymandering and to Virginia to inform voters of issues that will help them understand the choices they face in the upcoming state election. We will also write to our legislators. We’ll have addresses and supplies on Tuesdays.
Contact Claire M. for information.
The Democracy Action Team will be watching the town hall with Rep. Hoyle at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, October 7 in the UUFC Library. The town hall will be followed by the regularly-scheduled Speaking of Democracy discussion at 6:30 PM, which will be about Digital Safety.
Have you ever felt a calling to serve as a reader during Sunday Service? Please come learn more about this opportunity, October 11, Saturday, at 9:30 – 11 AM in the Sanctuary! You will have a chance to read from the pulpit and see how it feels. After attending this info session, any participant can let Rev. Alex know that they would like to be on a roster of readers to be asked to read in worship.
Each month, the Fellowship gathers donations for a certain charitable cause. These are our Outreach Offerings. You can contribute to this month’s offering in a few ways:
The Social Concerns team donate an assortment of sweet and savory refreshments, including gluten-free and vegan choices, for our enjoyment at the social hour following Sunday worship. These items are purchased and prepared by the team to encourage donations to the Outreach Offering. Collection baskets are always found at the end of the refreshments table. The next time you’re eyeing something tasty on the table, consider putting a donation in the basket first to show how much you appreciate having that treat ready and waiting for you!
“By their groups shall ye know them.” ~James Luther Adams
Let your group be known! It’s time to get registered for the 5th Annual Teams and Councils Trick or Treat event!
WHO: All UUFC teams, groups, and councils are invited to represent!
WHEN: October 26th, after the service
WHERE: Social hall, porch, and patio (under the market tents!)
DEADLINE to REGISTER: October 15th (earlier is helpful to our planning team!)
This event was born out of the RE Council’s understanding that we can only nurture a next generation of UUs when newcomers and whole families feel integrated into our wider Fellowship community enough to stay and take root here. Often, the missing first piece is simply knowing what’s available and how to join in.
Your participation in this event meets a 2-fold need by creating a joyful and lighthearted Fellowship experience in a time when our emotional and spiritual resources are feeling particularly taxed AND you are helping folx understand who we are and how they can expand their engagement with Fellowship life when they’re ready.
This isn’t just fun! It’s the sacred work of community building and memory making.
To participate, you must:
We would LOVE but don’t require participating teams to:
If you have any questions, please reach out to Skyla for help. We would love to see every group, team, and council join in the fun!
“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!
Our Outreach offerings in October support South Corvallis Food Bank, which is a shopping-style food pantry offering a 5-day supply of food to households every other week. Partnered with Linn-Benton Food Share & Oregon Food Bank, the Food Bank strives to increase food-security in our community through compassionate care.
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.
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.