Calling All Crafters & Artists (Holiday Fair Planning Meeting), 8/25

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Our UUFC Holiday Fair is coming December 7. If you’d like to be part of the planning, please join in our next meeting on Sunday, August 25, after the Sunday service. Do you enjoy jewelry making, calligraphy, quilling, ceramics, woodworking, making greeting cards, knitting, crocheting, quilting, painting, photography, glass making, etc.? Turn your hobby into cash for yourself and UUFC, and joy for the buyers who love getting hand-crafted items for themselves or as gifts. UUFC retains 25% of the selling price and you get the rest. Do you have limited inventory? Then share a table with another UUFC crafter. Start creating now.


Tom & Isabel Prusinski are coordinating artists/vendors. Please let them know you wish to participate. Contact Tom and Isabel

Queerly Beloved Game Day, 8/18

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4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the Social Hall

Do you love to play Mexican Train Dominoes? Or maybe you’ve never played before and it sounds like fun.
Join the Queerly Beloved social group as we snack, chat, maybe sing, and play on Sunday afternoon, August 18 from 4:00 to 6:00 in the Social Hall. Bring snacks to share if you wish. All kind souls are welcome!

UUFC Merch Store

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Check out the UUFC Merch Store for tee-shirts, hats, coffee cups, backpacks, umbrellas, and more! Support our Fellowship with great gifts for yourself and your loved ones. Find it under the “about” tab on the UUFC website.

House Party Democracy House Party, 8/18

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Join the Democracy Action Team for a fun, casual gathering where we will talk about ranked choice voting and learn how we can encourage our neighbors to vote YES on the critical ballot measure in November. You’ll even have a chance to try out ranked choice voting with a mock election.

DATE: August 18
TIME: 11:45 am, following the UUFC Fellowship Service
PLACE: UUFC Sanctuary (near the door to the Fellowship Hall). For more information, contact Deborah Clark.

“A Larger View” 8/18/24

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Among the many things we know (and think we know) is that we are part of a Life which is much more than our individual selves. Understanding what this means is one of the fundamental religious questions. Understanding how to live with what this means is a foundation for spiritual practice. What is involved, for each of us?

with Rev. Jill McAllister

Pema Chodron Study Group

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Welcoming the Unwelcome Study Group

Monday evenings from 7:15 to 8:30 September 23rd – December 2nd

Facilitated by Joyce Federiuk

Please register HERE.

Try, once again, to let everything you do be done in love.


I am inspired by these words Rev. Jill uses to close our Sunday service. What would it be like to
live this way? Sometimes I speak or act out of love, and that feels like happiness. But not
everything I do or say comes from love, and when an alternative motivation (like ego, obligation,
guilt, anger, etc etc) takes over, the results are often not so good.

How can we move closer to this lovely ideal? Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chodron has a masterful way of explaining Buddhist wisdom in an accessible and compelling way. After reading “When Things Fall Apart” I was intrigued by the idea that in our incessant quest to avoid suffering, we often make a mess of things and cause a lot of suffering for ourselves and others. When I attended a weekend retreat with Pema and learned to meditate, I learned that it is possible to train in loving kindness. Meditation allowed me to take these ideas to heart and start to apply them to actual situations. I then gained a new level of appreciation of the power of
Buddhist wisdom.

I’m planning a study group to read and discuss “Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World”. Here’s a blurb from the cover:
In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, Pema Chodron offers fresh wisdom, heartfelt reflections and the signature humor and insight that have made her a beloved guide in turbulent times. In an increasingly polarized world, Pema offers us tools to find common ground, even when we disagree, so we can build a stronger and broader sense of community. Sharing never-before-told personal stories from her remarkable life, simple and powerful everyday practices, and directly relatable advice, Pema leads the way in showing us how to become triumphant bodhisattvas- compassionate beings- in even the most difficult of circumstances.

Well, reading and understanding is one thing. But taking the advice to heart and trying it out in our everyday encounters is what I’m hoping to achieve in this Adult RE offering. We will read, we will discuss, we will do guided meditations, and we will try out these ideas in real life.

Thank you!

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Thank you to everyone who stopped by for a cup of lemonade at our youth-run lemonade stand! The kids got a taste of how the kitchen runs on Sundays (thank you, kitchen crew, for your patience and mentoring!), worked together to make lemonade and signs, and had a crash course on customer service skills.

With your generous support, they raised a whopping $190 for Jackson Street Youth Services! We deeply appreciate you showing up to support the young people in our congregation and beyond!

Consider Becoming a Grandfolk!

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The Grandfolks Squad is a group of (mostly) older adults who are willing to provide occasional childcare on an as-needed basis so that young parents can attend Fellowship functions without incurring a cost for childcare. This is a great way to get to know younger families and connect deeply with the next generation of Unitarian Universalists. In your free time, you can provide the loving care that we wish for every child and parent in our midst.

If you have extra love to give and time to share, please consider becoming a Grandfolks Squad member.

To join the squad, email Skyla (dre@uucorvallis.org) to set up a meeting. Grandfolks are interviewed and background checked before service, and receive a snazzy button to show the world that they’re proud Grandfolks!

We’re looking forward to having you on he squad!

It’s Time to Register for the New Year!

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Families, it’s time to register your children and youth for the new year in RE! I know it may feel like you just registered them yesterday (if you’re new, you might have!) but each new Fellowship year brings a new registration form so that we can keep your younglings safe with the most up-to-date information while they’re in our care!

Thanks for helping us out by registering in advance of September 15th, when the new year in RE kicks off.

This year, to make things easier for you, we have one form for all three age groups. So whether your child is in Chalice Children (nursery care for new walkers through preschool), Spirit Play (grades K-6), or YRUU (youth group for grades 6-12), the form is the same.

If you have any questions, please contact Skyla King-Christison (dre@uucorvallis.org)

Daily Practice – A Reminder

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Several years ago, in the first summer of the pandemic, we were trying to cope with the realization of a long road ahead of us, the unknowns at at every turn, the fear and sadness. Together we were building a daily practice of centering and giving thanks. This passage, written one August morning, reminds me of the never-ending need for that practice:

“How does a morning look and feel to you, where you are? And how do you know? Do you check a weather report first, or go outside? Do you gather resignation as you get out of bed, or catalogue current pains, or give thanks for a new day? Have you imagined or tried dedicating your first breaths to goodness or compassion?

Or saying a morning prayer as the first thing? Daily practice is about orienting and turning to the day aiming toward love. It involves taking in — being present to – more than assumptions and judgements we carry from yesterday. Taking in the sky, the clouds and trees, the sunlight and shadows, birds, flowers, insects, the fact of the earth. Being present to the realities of human limitations, our own and others, while at the same time remembering the immensity of time and space of which each and every life is one small part. Acknowledging, remembering, the possibilities for love (which contains justice and compassion and joy.) Reverence is a good word to describe this process of remembering, orienting and turning.

We begin in reverence for the day and for all it brings – everything welcome and not welcome, everything we think we know and all we do not. With thanks each breath that enters the body. With thanks for the hazy morning sky and the sun coming over the trees once more. With thanks for a chance to let love hold us and move through us for one more day.

May we breathe in and breathe out and bow to the morning, and to Life.”