More Resources for Whole Church RE and Post-Curricular Faith Formation!

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In case you read the monthly journal, and you’re thinking Hey! I want to know more about these emerging trends in RE, I’ve got some resources for you! If you haven’t read the monthly journal yet, go check your inbox!

Joy Berry, the UUA’s children and families faith development specialist, has a nice post about whole-church RE that will get you started. After attending several of her discussion sessions, I was compelled to use her WCRE map template in planning for next year’s RE. If you look closely, you’ll spot things you’ve never seen before at UUFC!

If any of those stars spark your interest and you want to help, let me know! Mary Jo Wood and Joyce Standing are already helping with plans for our Jr. worship associates and Angel Swanson is gearing up to bring the Mosaic antiracism curriculum to adults and children. If everyone takes a small piece of the plan, our whole church connections will really shine!

This article on de-centering curriculum focuses on post-curriculum approach as a response to the wildly fluctuating Sunday attendance. Maybe you’ve noticed that some Sundays we have 5 kids at Time for All Ages and others we have 30. These are wild times! Luckily, we’re making it work and our congregation is one of the few for whom loose curriculum in Sunday morning spaces is still working (see more on that below), but we’re not out of the woods. It’s useful to take note of some of the massive cultural shifts that show up in the ways we gather. These changes will continue to shape how we show up in community and require that we have adaptive spirits if we’re in this for the long haul.

This article about how some churches are still finding success with curriculum highlights some of the reasons we’re doing so well. A major factor is financial support for staffing. Our volunteers are soul-weary and cannot commit to doing their own planning and prep. So thanks, all you pledging members! You’re making it possible for us to continue to provide structured exploration spaces in this current landscape of burnout and stress. We have been able to pivot to using curriculum with stand-alone lessons so that no one is lost when they join only sporadically. We have integrated much more social time and lightened the amount of curriculum-driven elements are in each Sunday session to keep our children’s spaces low-stakes and high nurture. We are so eager to get back into the classroom wing where we have dedicated spaces that are conducive to focused exploration as well as meaningful social connection. We’re getting a little itchy in the social hall, especially as we continue to grow.

I’m excited to hear your thoughts and ideas about whole church RE. Come talk to me about your ideas!

More Painting Opportunities – Please Help!

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Many thanks to the wonderful volunteers who painted Rooms 1 to 5 with primer coat this Saturday, Now those rooms 1-5 need 2 finish coats! Next, rooms 7, 8, 9, 10, and upstairs halls and storage rooms need all three coats. PLEASE SIGN UP :
AM shifts are 9 – 12, PM shifts 1-4 PM

  • Friday April 25
  • Saturday April 26
  • Sunday April 27 (1-4 PM only)
  • Friday May 2
  • Saturday May 3
  • Sunday May 4 (1-4 PM only)

Find some new side-by-side-work companions and help us keep moving forward on this huge project! Contact Wolfgang with questions.

Monthly Vegan Potluck, 4/27

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Social Hall, Kitchen: 5:30 pm Monthly Vegan Potluck – Everyone Welcome! Bring a dish to share with others who are learning to eat in a healthy, climate friendly way. Include Plants: grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs & spices. Exclude: flesh, fluids, and unborn young. Try it! You’ll like it!! Need more info? call Ann Marchant

Report from the West Bank, 5/1

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At the 2024 UUA General Assembly the delegates passed an Action of Immediate Witness encouraging all UU congregations to engage in witness, education, organizing and advocacy in solidarity with Palestinians. In that spirit we will host a presentation from the group Corvallis Palestine Solidarity on Thursday, May 1st 5:30-7:30 PM in the Sanctuary.

Join us for this report and presentation from a recent volunteer solidarity trip to the West Bank. A local retired OSU Professor and community member will share his experiences and journey –intellectual, emotional and physical – from Corvallis to Bethlehem, Palestine.
Come open to learning new things, shedding old beliefs and asking important questions. We will have some items from Bethlehem for sale plus art from local community members as part of a fundraiser to support family businesses in the West Bank.

Have name tags gone missing?!

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Have you noticed that the name tag racks in the foyer are no longer overflowing? That’s because the Membership team and administrative staff are in the process of cleaning out old tags. We’re removing name tags of folks who have died (!) and folks we haven’t seen in years (this includes members we have not seen or heard from in years.) The removed name tags have not been destroyed! If you can’t find your name tag, please tell the Greeters or a staff member.

At least once a year, the admin staff reviews our database lists of members and friends, to update as needed and remove those we haven’t heard from. Fellowship policy states that if we haven’t heard from a member for 12 months or more (especially no record of participation in the pledge drive or other Fellowship activities) we remove them from “active” membership. This means we no longer include them in regular or special Fellowship communication, no longer count them as members in our annual report to the UUA, and no longer include them on membership lists for annual meetings, including voting. This is why we encourage all members to participate in the annual pledge drive, to let us know who is “here” and taking part in the life of the Fellowship. Note: attending the Fellowship does not make one a member! Membership requires orientation and signing the membership book.

Screening of Farming While Black, 5/15

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Join us for a screening of Farming While Black, an award-winning film about the rising generation of young black farmers, featuring Leah Penniman, author of the book, “Farming While Black.” Panel discussion following the showing.

Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 6:00 pm
Oregon State University LINC Building Rm 210 (near SW 26th & SW Jefferson)

Award winning Kontent Films feature length documentary
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqMM2bKFiV8
Moderated panel:
Mark Decena, director / writer/ producer, Kontent Films
Charlotte Epps, Leticia Carson Legacy Project, and Reciprocity Garden
David Barron, Cross-eyed Cricket Farms and Friends Agriculture Co-op

Free and free parking nearby

Co-sponsored by Benton County Master Gardener Association, Oregon State University Sustainability Double Degree Program; in collaboration with and support of Oregon State University Extension Service Master Gardener

UUA Common Read, 7/15, 7/29, 8/12, 8/26

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a stack of books

Authentic Selves Workshop
Fifty allies and queer folks are needed to experience four successive workshop sessions centered around this year’s UU Common Read. Mark your calendars (7/15, 7/29, 8/12 and 8/26, 6:30 to 8:00pm) and order the book: Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families. Tell us you plan to participate by registering here: https://uufc.breezechms.com/form/a93a00

Queerly Beloved, 5/11

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Our next gathering will be Sunday, May 11th – 4-6 PM in the social hall at UUFC.

Christine will be hosting a Talent Show for our next QB meeting. But that doesn’t mean you have to be “talented”, just willing to share something. Some of the activities you can share include:

Read or recite a quotation, long or short
Sing a song
Play an instrument
Tell a story (true or not)
Read a poem (yours or someone else’s)
Act out a story
Tell jokes
Show us your craftwork
Magic tricks
Juggling
Riddles

or anything else that might be inspiring, interesting or amusing. Perform alone or in groups. Everybody’s got talents!

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈
Queerly Beloved meets every Second Sunday! Join LGBTQ+ folx and allies for social gatherings centered on queer issues and themes. We understand the importance of queer community, and our goal is to provide a safe space where people can find that sense of belonging right here in Corvallis.
If you need childcare for smaller children, please contact the Grandfolks Squad here: https://uufc.breezechms.com/form/8c8211

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I caught my breath and sighed deeply at the news of the death of Pope Francis this week, another seismic change in the world.  Then I picked up a book I very recently received – his autobiography, published only a few months ago, titled “Hope.”  Day by day I have begun to read it, as I consider both the gifts of Christianity and its horrible perversions.  We are living in this country with the perversions, writ large.   Pope Francis had a much different perspective.


This is what he said in the introduction:  “People often say ‘wait and hope’ – so much so that the word esperar in Spanish means both ‘to hope’ and ‘to wait’ – but hope is above all the virtue of movement and the engine of change. It’s the tension that brings together memory and utopia to truly build the dreams that await us. And if a dream fades we need to go back and dream it again, in new forms, drawing with hope from the embers of memory.”  

Last Sunday we heard similar perspectives from climate activists such as Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Terry Tempest Williams, Leah Penniman, and more. Hope is the motion, the movement, that keeps us aiming and working for our highest goals.  Even when we think all is lost.  Love is the motivation.  

I also received this quote from the writings of Tennessee Williams this week, with gratitude:  “This world is violent and mercurial – it will have its way with you.  We are saved by love – love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share; being a parent, being a writer, being a painter, being a friend.  We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”