Join “Aging Successfully in Community” team members & friends to enjoy tea, coffee, cookies & snacks in the social hall 2-4 pm, 12/11.
Bring a plate of cookies or other snacks to share, if you like.
November Connect Up Hike, 11/30
Meet Saturday, Nov. 30 at 9:45 am at the Midge Cramer trailhead to Bald Hill at the west end of the Fairgrounds parking lot. We’ll start hiking at 10:00 am. This will be a “lollipop” trail with different ability options. Join us for all or part of the journey. We’ll head west on the paved path, then north to the barn, and around the west trail to the top of the hill. Then we’ll make our way back downhill to the barn via whatever trail is less like a mudslide. Then back to the parking lot via the paved path. This is an easy to moderate hike of about 4 miles with about 300 ft. elevation gain. Dress for the weather, bring water, shoes with traction, poles if you like, but NO DOGS PLEASE.
From the Minister — The Coming Holiday
This week a letter from the UUA General Assembly Office included this reflection, below. It is a beautifully compact and eloquent statement of the coming holiday weekend, so I share it here with you, to help us enter in:
“A Thanksgiving Reflection: Honoring Connection, Gratitude, and Responsibility
As we approach Thanksgiving, we pause to reflect on the complexity of this holiday and its varied meanings. For many, it is a time to gather in gratitude with loved ones. For others, it is a somber reminder of the painful history and ongoing impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples and their lands.
This season invites us to hold these truths together: the need for gratitude and connection, and the imperative to honor justice and repair. We encourage you to take time to learn about the histories and cultures of the Indigenous peoples who stewarded the lands we now call home. Consider how your gratitude can inspire actions that support equity, solidarity, and healing.”
May we enter into this week, and our plans, with consideration. With openness to learning, with willingness to understand ourselves, our ancestors, and our abilities to contribute to needed justice and repair, in our own homes, families and communities.
See you Sunday!
“Connection, Gratitude, and Responsibility” 11/24/2024
The coming season is always a challenge, more and more each year. We find ourselves in-between in so many ways – between proclamations of peace and ongoing war, between holy days and (often mindless) accumulation, between stories of freedom and realities of oppression, between giving thanks and perpetuating pain. And this year, with heightened fear.
How do we begin to enter in, to be part of nourishing and helping, of both gratitude and responsibility? There are no easy answers, but we can enter in nevertheless.
With Rev. Jill McAllister
Thank you for supporting RE!
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed winter accessories, hothands, and cash to support our children and youth service project of creating winter care kits. Having some small action to take when you see a need is one way that we can overcome feelings of hopelessness, and put our shared values of generosity, interdependence, and love into action!
Thanks to your generous donations, everyone in Spirit Play and YRUU created a winter care kit to keep in their car to offer when they cross paths with someone in need. Each kit contained a warm hat, gloves, and 2 ten-hour hothands pouches, along with a note of love and encouragement in a waterproof bag. Some of them also included scarves and artwork from the children. In all, 21 kits were made and a few leftover items were given to the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center.
We couldn’t have pulled this off without the support of our amazing community of adults, so thank you!
What’s New In Inquirers Series?
We’ve got an addition to the Inquirers Series! The Chalice Circle team will now offer an entire session on their special format for small group ministry as the fifth session in the series. That means, if you’ve attended the whole series, you’ve got something fresh to check out!
If you’re one of our participants who has your eye on completing the series and getting your very own home chalice, don’t fret! The old sessions count toward your progress. We hope that you’ll consider attending this new offering as you are able because chalice circles are a distinctly UU way to build deep connections here at the Fellowship, and we want everyone to know how to get plugged in.
If you are interested in checking out the new session, their first offering is scheduled for December 1st at 11:45 in room 8.
The Inquirers Series is an ongoing series of sessions that you may attend in any order, as you are available. Whenever there is a 5th Sunday in a month, Skyla King-Christison will offer UU Roots, which is a deeper dive into UU History.
- “Our Shared Values” with Skyla King-Christison
- “Worship and the Liturgical Year” with Rev. Jill McAllilster
- “Building and Grounds Tour” with John Bailey
- “Overview of Lifespan Faith Development” with Dawn Dirks
- “Chalice Circles” with the Chalice Team
- “Overview of Justice Teams” with Karen Josephson
- “Care and Support” with Sandy Piper
- “Membership 101” with the Membership Team
The updated rotation flyer has been posted beside the welcome desk, but here’s a preview!
Between Us, 11/17/2024
Was that the first light dusting of snow on Mary’s Peak this morning? I stared at it for a good long while before heading out to walk and check on the maples of the neighborhood, now flaming red and gold. In the afternoon, the slant of the autumn sun outlined the coast range as beautiful clouds continued to shift and move in the blue sky. Later as I drove to join a small group to honor and celebrate a wedding (the joy!) the Beaver Moon – last super moon of this year – was rising, huge and round in the eastern sky. My Christmas cactus – a cutting from an old friend now gone, is blooming today. More beauty than one can really understand, all in the space of a day.
Through this week I have watched and listened to many of you, with abiding thanks. Some are focused on helping others who really need help; some feel an edge – a need to fight where needed; some are not feeling so well; some are planning next steps and forward movement; most of us have moments of shock and disbelief and genuine fear for our country, and in my opinion those moments are more than justified.
In all of these ways – the beauty, the adjusting, the wondering, the helping and the fear – in all of these ways we are being called to be present – to keep alert to what is true within us and around us. We are given gifts, we are called to continue working, we are needed. It is in and through our all these parts of our lives that love becomes real in the world. Let’s keep going together, step by step.
“Who Is My Neighbor?” 11/17/24
One of the great teachings, of Jesus and others, is to try to love your neighbor as yourself. And as soon as it was taught, the questions began. Does that mean all my neighbors? Even the ones I think are strange? And the ones that scare me? And the ones I don’t like, don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care about? Even the ones who are dangerous? The teaching remains, and so do all the questions. How might we approach them now? Especially from our aim to be a welcoming congregation?
with Rev. Jill McAllister
Secure Housing and Food for All, 11/17
The Secure Housing and Food for All Justice Team will meet Sunday Nov. 17 at 11:45a in the UUFC Library. We’ll share information about Corvallis Daytime Drop-In Center, the Social Concerns collection of this month.
CDDC needs to move before March of 2025.
For more information about the CDDC, visit the CDDC website. Also update on the Perla’s new home at ‘Rivergreen’.
Roberta Smith, Roz Keeney, Mike Jager
Sip & Snack VALCAN CELLARS, 11/22
Friday Nov 22nd at 5:00 p.m. we will meet for our FINAL Sip & Snack Connect Up activity for the year. This Connect Up activity will need a new leader next April. Please think about whether you can serve the UU in this way.
The Tasting room is located in the Old World Deli building. It’s a snug room and seating is on a first come, first serve basis so we should aim to be there at 5 on the dot. Given the small space, bring ONLY small bites to share (no cutting or scooping). Napkins will be available.
Those with a wine passport get a free flight of wine. After enjoying some wine, feel free to get dinner at the Old World Deli on your own. (We cannot bring wine out into the Deli, and there is no room for a basket of food from the Deli into the tasting room. Be forewarned.) There is no carpool – just meet at the location.
Please contact Heather E prior to Wednesday 11/20 so she has a head count. Hope to see you there.