Our January Justice Outreach Offering will support We Care. We Care is a local coalition of faith communities, businesses, foundations and other non-profit organizations which provides emergency assistance for Benton County residents. Each week, We Care helps people pay for rent, utilities, and other expenses to prevent evictions and homelessness or the shut-off of water or electricity. The Fellowship has long been a supporting partner.
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 Kitchen team donates 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 ends 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!
Get your pens ready! Join the Democracy Action Team in writing to prospective 2026 election year voters. Sunday, Jan 4th is the first day of our first writing project in 2026.
WHAT: News Boosting Postcards to Georgia to educate voters about the impact of the “Big Beautiful Bill” on rural hospitals. You can see the postcards at Informed Voters of America initiative website at https://www.informedvotersus.org/.
HOW: We have 200 postcards to write and mail by Feb 5, 2026. We will distribute them in packets of 10 (with addresses, stamps, and instructions) at the Democracy Action Team table in the Social Hall after Sunday worship (which starts at 10 AM) – starting on Jan 4. Look for us there! Take the supplies and follow the instructions!
Or – you can sign up with Postcards to Swing States at https://secure.ngpvan.com/NPCPSG0VaUqaLw7w6AbNDg2 and have them mailed to you directly. You can choose where to write (Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina) but the minimum order is 100 postcards.
Contact Claire Montgomery (UUFC Democracy Action Team) for more information.
Do hand-written letters and postcards increase voter turnout? YES. Randomized Controlled Trials demonstrate statistically significant increases in voter turnout of 1-3%. That may not seem huge – but swing state elections are close and that could be more than enough to tip the scale. Check out Vote Forward experiments at https://votefwd.org/impact (click on “See Our Tests”) and Progressive Voter Turnout Project experiments at https://turnoutpac.medium.com/a-gateway-to-activism-postcards-win-close-elections-5bf7f45da15a.
Come hear our Council Chairs share their story of leadership at UUFC. Each of us can reflect on what motivates and informs our roles in the congregation. What puts fuel in your tank for leadership? Many people find that in congregational leadership, they live out their values in new ways and grow spiritually. Looking ahead to the Spring, some leadership roles will turn over, so now is a time to listen for seeds in your soul waiting to sprout.
Carl English-Young (Connections Council), Kathy Kopczynski (Justice Council), Scott Bruslind (Financial Oversight Council), and Nick Houtman (Facilities Council) will speak. Rev. Alex McGee will lead.
Post-Poetry Popsicles is a playful, positively purposeful, pleasantly pointless (but practically prudent), pastor-approved party, providing perfectly preserved, previously purchased popsicles for parishioners, participants, poets, performers, parents, and pals.
Please proceed post-program to the pleasantly populated social hall where plentiful popsicle provisions will be proudly presented as a peaceful, playful, palate-cooling payoff for pondering profound poems, processing powerful prayers, and participating patiently in a purposeful, poetic production.
This people-pleasing, pseudo-picnic promotes personal presence and proper popsicle purging while preventing permafrosted freezer paralysis. Please participate!
In plain language, the RE Council has a popsicle surplus, and we need the freezer space for other things, so we’ll be giving away free popsicles after the poetry service on Sunday. Everything must go, so please come enjoy a cold treat on a cold day, and if you’re a popsicle fan who would like to take home any leftovers, please let Skyla know!
Visibility Brigade Bannering for Women’s Basketball Pre-game Traffic
Friday, January 2, 2026 5 – 6pm PST
Gill Coliseum at OSU 660 SW 26th St Corvallis, OR 97331
Join us to deploy our first banner of the New Year before the January 2 Beaver home game from 5-6 pm. Our banner will read “RESIST ICE” and since there will be a lot of foot traffic, we also will provide a QR code or small flyer for those who want more information. We will be test driving our new banner with lights. Each person will hold a letter shaped from Xmas string lights to spell out the message. Help spread the message of ICE resistance!
The Benton County Visibility Brigade was sourced from the UUFC Democracy Action Team and is now also a part of Benton County Indivisible. The Brigade broadcasts messages in support of democracy by carrying out high visibility actions, including bannering from I-5 overpasses and in high traffic locations in Corvallis. We are totally committed to non-violence in word and deed and very safety conscious. Best of all, we have lots of fun! If you experience despair over the current state of democracy, check us out as a great antidote. For more information, email visibilitybrigadebc@gmail.com.
If you purchased a plantable holiday tree from the Fellowship and wish to return it to be planted, you can do so on either Sunday, January 4 or Sunday, January 11. Please leave your tree at the covered bench in the Fellowship parking lot.
Today marks a moment in time of stillness and reflection, the longest night of the year before the gradual return of light. There is a wealth of music about winter, night, darkness, and light, and I tried to select pieces that captured the ideas of cold December nights, the knowledge that the sun and warmth will return, and the small lights that both sustain us in the meantime, as well as the small lights that we put forth to try to sustain others.
The prelude opened with “Once Upon a December”, which comes from the 1997 movie Anastasia, a beautiful animated fairy tale loosely based upon the legend of Russia’s Grand Duchess Anastasia. Written by Broadway veterans Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (who also penned “Ragtime” and “Once on this Island”), the protagonist’s words are full of wistful nostalgia:
Far away, long ago Glowing dim as an ember Things my heart used to know Things it yearns to remember
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
https://youtu.be/5gZrYyi-XRQ?si=7OwGhbgsWmmKT0TE
The well-known and beloved Clair de lune followed, by French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy. Clair de lune – which translates to “the light of the moon” – is a luminous musical portrait of moonlight spilling over a quiet landscape. In the context of a Winter Solstice service, Debussy’s shimmering harmonies suggest the reflection of the winter moon on snow or ice, as well as a sense of calm, wonder, and the peaceful magic of a winter night.
https://youtu.be/Ch2mrPm1JnM?
I was originally planning to play Don McLean’s “Vincent“, which is so wonderful and a personal favorite…or Eric Whitacre’s less-known but exquisite “Glow“. But after the youth performance and the activities that Skyla King-Christison had planned, it felt like the service called for the quiet warmth and intimacy of Jim Brickman’s arrangement of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” instead. The gentle piano lines and soothing childhood melody evoke the comforting glow of starlight on a dark, quiet evening. Even in the depths of winter, small points of light – hope, love, and connection – persist and guide us forward.
https://youtu.be/jUw6tNmXcCU?
For today’s postlude, I played Charles Murphy’s “Light Is Returning”, a song we’ve sung at past solstice services. This musical celebration of the light’s return couldn’t be more fitting for the longest night of the year, and the lyrics serve as a promise of new beginnings:
Light is returning Even though this is the darkest hour. No one can hold back the dawn.
Let’s keep it burning; Let’s keep the light of hope alive! Make safe our journey through the storm.
One planet is turning Circle on her path around the Sun. Earth Mother is calling her children home.
Invite friends and family to this gentle, reflective service in which we honor the gifts in the age-old message of people travelling with hope. We will enjoy the lighting of candles, with appropriate candle options for all ages!
Rev. Alex McGee will preach
This service will be broadcast on Zoom using the same link as the Sunday Worship Services.
