The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis
4 PM on Zoom
The Secure Housing and Food for All Team invites you to join us to hear from the Directors of Unity Shelter, Vina Moses and the Corvallis Daytime Dropin Center on homelessness and poverty in Corvallis, what services are being provided, and how you can help. Also learn about StoneSoup program.. Shawn Collins, Ilene McClelland, Allison Hobgood – Moderator Mike McInally.
The Secure Housing and Food for All Justice team will meet in the UUFC library at 11:45am on Sunday 12/15. Support for Unity Shelter this month. Check out the Bulletin Board in Social Hall! information about Front door Services program on 12/18 (zoom). Concerns of the Sweeps continuing along with every park posted as no camping… ie. Sleep 10pm- 8am and then vacate the park, for the streets.
Each season brings its gifts, and challenges. Here is the unique beauty of the Pacific Northwest in winter – green and fog and cold. Here are the holidays of light and joy. Here is the time of waiting and wondering. Join us for a morning of music and contemplation of this season on the earth, this season in our lives.
With the UUFC Choir and Band, Music Director David Servias, Choir Leader Steven Evans-Renteria, and the Rev. Leslie Chartier.
Announcing new leadership for the Fellowship Membership and Greeting Teams: Joyce Standing is the new Membership coordinator, and Heather Emberson is the new Greeter Coordinator. These two teams have long been strong and vital parts of Fellowship life, and they will continue to be so with Heather and Joyce at the helm. As is common, with new leadership comes a chance to review and revise procedures and processes – this time including increasing the greeters team, revising the Membership “book”, and updating the New Members Welcome. The main tasks of these two teams are to provide Sunday morning greeting to all and accompany newcomers who decide to continue attending the Fellowship through the processes of orientation and membership if desired.
Thank-you Heather and Joyce, and thank-you to all who are part of our membership and greeter teams!
Just in case you’ve wondered whether or not the Fellowship, or UUism, has done or is doing enough to make things better (or perhaps to change all the things that need to be changed in the world – as if we could) here’s a heartening report from the wider world. Perry Bacon Jr, an opinion writer for the Washington Post, recently wrote an article (Nov. 27, 2024) encouraging folks to stop doomscrolling and choose from a list of five more constructive actions. #2 on his list is this: “Join a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.” He writes:
“If you’re part of a Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other religious group that meets regularly and engages politically, skip this. But there is a growing number of Americans, particularly on the left, who are religiously unaffiliated and not regularly congregating with people who share their values.
They should consider the Unitarian Universalists. I recently started regularly attending a UU service in Louisville. It’s much more political than the Christian churches I have previously been a member of. That turned me off at first. Since politics is essentially my job, I try (usually unsuccessfully) to avoid discussions of elections and government in my off-hours. And I was leery of a church whose openly liberal values would clearly turn off Trump supporters and therefore ensure a congregation that didn’t include many Republicans.
But before the election, church members engaged in politics in a practical way, encouraging congregants to go canvassing in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment here to create a school vouchers program. (It failed.) So at least on Sundays, I was in a community of people working on a concrete, discrete local issue, as opposed to nervously speculating about Vice President Kamala Harris’s poll numbers.
Post-election, I was relieved to be in a space where we openly discussed shared values and ideals we felt had been rejected by America in electing Trump, such as support of immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.”
It’s encouraging to hear that our message and our approach are helpful! If you’ve been here awhile, doing exactly the work that Bacon describes, then take a moment to appreciate the fact that it does make a difference. (Share your appreciation with others). And if you are new to the Fellowship, perhaps looking for what Bacon describes, we welcome you! The world needs all of us, to keep these values and commitments alive and growing.
This Saturday, December 7, Dance Planet will once again happen from 7:00 to 8:30 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 NW Circle Blvd. We’ll open with a live set by two amazing percussionists, Dave Chiller and Dave Storrs. They’ll do a unique mix of melodic and rhythmic percussion to warm us all up before DJ Beeara plays an hour-long set of music from around the world and across the decades. Admission to this family-friendly event is a suggested donation of $5—15. One hundred percent of the proceeds will be donated to local environmental organizations.
There are many reasons to like the color green: often a symbol of safety, the color of nature, a mark of good luck, among others. At the UUFC, the GREEN name tag is a sign that you are new! We look for you and want to encourage your exploration of our Fellowship.
If you have been coming regularly for a month or so, then it’s time to sign up to get a WHITE name tag. This name tag is an outward sign that you are here, that you have decided to join us regularly, and that you want to continue your religious journey with us!
We’re SO glad you have decided to take this step. Please stop by the Welcome Desk to request your new name tag!
“We were made for joy and woe, and when this we rightly know, through the world we safely go” wrote William Blake. Join with the Fellowship Committee on Ministry this Sunday to consider this truth – that joy and sorrow together are part of every human life.
with Mark Aron, Virgil Agnew, Gary Barnes and Alice Lyman
As the world turns (wasn’t that the name of a soap opera many years ago?) we still live day by day, and work on the things that are right in front of us most of the time. At the Fellowship, this weekend we are enjoying our annual December Holiday Fair, and planning many ways to gather this month to observe and celebrate holidays, holy days and the turning of the year.
Meanwhile, the classroom wing is filled with boxes and comings and goings as we get ready to empty that part of the building so that it can be repaired, renovated and renewed. This will be a big effort, as you can imagine, and will need many hands. If you haven’t already, please see the Announcement titled ‘Classroom Wing Renovation Begins in January,’ and sign-up to help in one of the listed ways. Or, talk to a member of the Building Expansion Project team in person this Sunday about how you can help.
All activities which regularly meet in the classroom wing will move to other locations in the building (or offsite) beginning after Christmas, and the classroom wing will be closed by January 1. If you have questions about where your group will meet, please ask me or office volunteer Priscilla Galasso.
