weekly announcements

Gina Sala Kirtan & Workshop, Friday, 6/14, 6/15

We are so happy to welcome global vocalist and long-term sound teacher Gina Salā back to Corvallis! Join us for a moving chant evening that will open your heart! Then, join us in a special workshop as Gina guides us in the yoga of sound, bhakti chant, medicine song and sound tantra, along with warmups, raga (Indian singing), refined mantra and medicine songs! All welcome, come to one or both events. Come experience the power and pleasure of your voice!

BUY TICKETS HERE!

About Gina Salā- Gina has been chanting since her early childhood ashram years living in a Hindu ashram. Her performance credits include Cirque du Soleil, the United Nations, festivals and ashrams and her repertoire spans 20 languages. Blessed with wonderful gurus throughout her life, Gina has led classes, workshops and international retreats for over 25 years in sound in bhakti chant, raga, mantra, sound for wellness, sound tantra and song. Her Awakening Voice Power of Love Sound School and other online offerings draw people from 4 continents. With warmth, humor and devotion, her passion is helping us sing ourselves awake to Who we are and the Love within.

www.ginasala.com

Instagram:ginasalamantramusic

UUFC Secure housing and Food for All

Thanks to all for food and clothing for our unhoused neighbors. With Summer coming on SORT – the Street Out Reach Team – has need of food for those who cannot make it to the Corvallis Drop-in Center.

Here is a list – (please nothing that takes a microwave. Can make hot water or heat up small cans):

  • peanut butter
  • soup and stew preferably with pop top lids
  • juice boxes
  • canned fruit also with pop top lids
  • instant oatmeal
  • ramen noodles
  • cheese and cracker packets

Thank you for your support –and if you have an hour or more on weekends, Stone Soup needs volunteers. Stone Soup has been serving one hot meal every day for over 2 decades, for anyone who asks.

https://stonesoupcorvallis.org/

Pride Day in Albany, 6/22

June 22 is Pride Day in Albany—a big wonderful party with performers, information, advocacy. Joyce Marvel-Benoist and JF Benoist have been hosting a Support Booth each year on the lawn near the stage.
This booth makes space for people to come get a snack, relax and create some calm, ask for support, feel accepted.

We are looking for helpers that day for 2-3 hour shifts. You must be emotionally mature, and good at being present and calm and welcoming.

Contact Joyce at 808-756-2703 if you can be supportive all day that day.

Being with Children in Worship

As we enter a period of multigenerational worship, it will be useful to consider some best practices for being together in a sacred space. People of all ages belong here and can be enriched by one another’s presence. We want every person to feel welcomed, comfortable, loved, and respected here. We are all growing together in faith.

We believe the following guidelines, borrowed largely from the Unitarian Universalist Community in Charlotte, can help us enter this time more thoughtfully.

Suggestions for children:

We are so glad you’re here!

Try Soul Work materials from the shelf at the back of the aisle. You may find that you feel calmer and can focus more on the service when your hands are busy.

Please return your unused materials and completed work to the shelf before you leave. We’ll incorporate your sewing into a quilt for the classroom wing when it reopens, and display your coloring in the “Artist of the Month” frame in the social hall! We’re excited to see what you create!

  • Try sitting where you can easily see what’s most interesting to you. Maybe it’s the speaker’s podium or the choir. Maybe it’s the tech team. What can you learn about being in community and helping out by watching people who are doing things that interest you? Probably a lot!
  • See if you can follow along in the order of service. That’s the folded paper that tells us what is coming up next in the service. You can compare the children’s order of service with the adult version. What’s the difference? Which do you prefer?
  • Please walk slowly and speak in a whisper when you are in this special, sacred room.
  • It’s okay if you need to get up and use the bathroom or get a new supply once in a while, but see how long you can remain in your seat and how few times you can get up. Learning to control our bodies and our attention is an important skill. It might help to make it a game and see how long you can stay in your spot without making a sound or try to get up fewer times this week than you did last week. Pretty soon it will be easy!

Tips for families:

  • Consistent attendance is the best way to increase your child’s comfort and participation in worship.
  • Explain what is going on during the service, and answer questions that your child may have with a whisper.
  • Consider sitting on the aisle so that if your child needs to go to the bathroom or get a supply from the Soul Work station, they can do so with minimal disruption. Encouraging your child to have plenty to keep them busy before you sit down will also help them minimize the ups and downs during the service. If you find that your child simply needs to get up more than a time or two during the service, consider sitting near the back or in the gallery that has been set up as a family zone.
  • You are welcome to step out into the social hall if your child needs a break but you wish to still hear the service. Keep in mind that parents have a higher capacity for tuning out child sounds than other adults, and try to step out before your child’s needs become an obstacle to community engagement in the service.
  • Ask for support from those around you. Many people here would love to carry a baby or take a child for a walk, but may be nervous about offering for fear of offending. Your willingness to speak what would feel supportive for you and your family helps those around you feel comfortable offering help.
  • If your child isn’t able to be in worship for long at first, please keep trying. As they have more experience, their capacity grows, and we find their presence a blessing to the congregation.

Suggestions for other adults:

  • Recognize your role as models for children in worship. Welcome children as you would others — learn their names, make a connection, smile and let them know you’re glad they are here. A little goes a long way in welcoming a child or family.
  • Share the experience of worship with children near you. You may find that you can share a hymnal or help them locate a passage in the order of service. Families are often thankful for the helping hand, and children enjoy the attention from nonparental adults.
  • While you may be eager to offer help to a child near you, you may be intimidating if you are a stranger to the child. Take time to get to know the children in our community by engaging with their whole family before services and in the social hall. If you’re a familiar face, your offers to assist will be more meaningful.
  • When children have a role in the service, treat them as worship participants rather than performers. If they make a mistake, even well-meant laughter can hurt and make it hard for them to want to try again.
  • Show patience and gratitude for the blessing of children in our midst. It means our faith is still growing! Keep your heart and mind open to what we can learn from each other as we work to be inclusive and loving as a congregation.

It’s UUFC Auction Time! 6/8

It’s time for camaraderie, fun, and fundraising.

All winning bids support our UUFC annual budget and are needed, so please bid high

Online Auction: May 29 at 9:00 a.m. – June 5 at 5:00 p.m.

Our Live and Silent Auction is Saturday, June 8. Come join in the fun!

  • Doors open at 5:30 – Registration, get your bidder number, socialize and pick up salad, dessert, and drinks in the Social Hall.
  • Socialize, eat, and bid on silent auction items 5:30 – 7:00
  • Live auction begins – with HOOPLA! 7:00 p.m.

Did you know that we’re actually having two auctions? (1) The online auction linked above, and (2) the in-person auction on June 8. Want to see what will be up for in-person bidding on June 8? Check out our Sneak Peek Catalog of live and silent auction items.

Volunteer to Help on June 8

Our annual UUFC Auction is a wonderful way to build community while giving back to UUFC. Many people are needed to make this event a success! We have a variety of jobs still available. Will you help?

Sign Up to Volunteer at the Auction

UUFC Photos

You are invited and encouraged to contribute to the collection of UUFC photos we are beginning to build and organize.

Please send photos, with brief description and date taken (year and month) to Michael Hughes with subject UUFC Photos.

Send Michael Hughes a message

UUFC Financial Insights

2024-25 Pledge Drive Update As you may have heard, pledges from members and friends provide ~ 90% of each year’s operating funds for the UUFC.

Pledges are us! Your Board of Directors has set a $431,000 goal for pledges in the coming year. We are just beyond the $410,000 mark toward that goal. To date, members have made annual pledges from $60 to over $10,000. Over 180 pledging units have pledged to date – individuals, couples or other relationship groups. Our goal is to reach at least 200.

If you have not yet pledged for 2024-25, can we count you to be among next year’s pledgers?

Make Your Pledge Now

If you need assistance making your pledge, please email the business manager at businessmgr@uucorvallis.org.

Shanti Shivani Yoga Of Sound Workshop Saturday!

THE HEALING POWER OF SOUND WITH SHANTI SHIVANI Through the Ancient Practice of Sound Yoga Shanti Shivani is a singer/nada yogini/sound healer, internationally acclaimed leader, and recording artist. The Yoga of Sound is an ancient mystical tradition using Voice, Breath and Movement as a Way of Healing, Empowerment & Self-Realization.

Sound yoga facilitates:

  • the release of trauma and the clearing of emotions
  • the alignment of body, speech and mind
  • the development of intuition & creativity

Workshop: BUY TICKETS HERE!

Where: Location given when you buy your ticket.

When: Saturday, May 25, 10 AM-12 PM.

Price: $35 at the door / $30 advance

Special Pricing for Concert & Workshop: S50 advance

Concert AND Workshop: BUY TICKETS HERE

Service positions available. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Whole Food Plant-Based Potluck, 5/26

Whole Food Plant Based Potluck (4th Sundays) Join in the Social Hall at 5:30 for a potluck exploring how to eat more Whole Food Plant Based meals.

It’s new! It’s confusing! It’s good for our health and our planet. No experience needed, and No Food Shaming!

Whether you are a long-time plant-based eater, or have never heard of this before, you are welcome here. Let’s eat, laugh, and learn together. Children welcome.

Bring a dish to share, in which all ingredients are plants:

Plants: Grains, Beans, Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts & Seeds, Herbs & Spices.

Not Plants: Animal flesh, fluids, and unborn young.

Need ideas for recipes? Visit Forks Over Knives Recipes

Hosted by Ann Marchant.

Tending Our Grief Circle, 6/1

Time: 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Place: UUFC Sanctuary

We gather once more before the summer break to tend to our grief. The grief you hold may be for personal losses, transitions, or the sorrows of the world – all are equally welcome and worthy of attention.

Our time together will include gentle movement, poetry, writing, sharing and a simple ritual. Please join us.

Facilitators Anna Coffman and Susan Sanford

For information, email Anna Coffman.

While registration is not required, this event will only happen if at least 4 people sign up.

So, if you know you are coming, please register.

Register for Tending Our Grief Circle 6/1