The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team invites you to join us in phoning, emailing, and/or writing our Representatives and Senators to enlist their support for Rumeysa Ozturk (and others!), an immigrant who was detained with complete disregard for her rights. It will be a glaring omission in our fight for justice if we allow those wrongfully detained to “disappear” from our consciousness! Our representatives need to hear from us. Need more information? Have questions? Contact Elona Meyer using this link.
In honor of Hanuman Jayanti, our Community Kirtan on Friday, April 11 will feature local kirtan artists Rainbow and Dhara Rose with a program celebrating the Hindu deity Hanuman, who represents courage, strength and self-discipline. The session will also include breath work and a guided meditation if time permits. We hope you’ll join us at 7-8:30 PM in the Sanctuary.
Have you submitted a photo of yourself to the Breeze directory? The Membership Team will set up a photo booth after the April 6 service in the Sanctuary and take photos of anyone who wants one for their Breeze profile.
Having a photo attached to your Breeze profile helps others in the Fellowship learn who you are and connect your name to your face.
Please join the Partner Church Team on Sunday, April 13 at 12:15 PM in the Social Hall, north end. We will focus on the June 8th service with Rev. Mwibutsa Ndagijimana, the September Pilgrimage to Transylvania, and on articulating a vision for the future.
At the UUFC, we nurture our spirits and put our faith into action through social justice work in our communities and the wider world. Partner Church Team members are proud of our many decades of social action, yet so much remains to be done. In the hope of making our efforts simple, transparent and accessible, we are moving our team meetings back to the Fellowship Hall.
For more information, contact PCT lead Heather E. using this link.
The renovation project is moving ahead – many changes can be seen! Siding on the east wall of the classroom wing was replaced this week. The major water pipe project (digging a trench though the parking lot) is mostly complete and scheduled for inspection next week. Fellowship volunteers will begin painting new drywall very soon. Updates to furnishings in Room 7 are being planned, as are updates in the classroom bathrooms. The building is going to be so much safer for all of us – very soon. Thanks to everyone for your help and patience during this project.
This beautiful spring! Days of looking through blooming trees at lingering snow on Mary’s Peak. Days of rain and hail, daffodils now fading and tulips beginning to bloom. And, this struggling world! Days of horror and cruelty, of war and destruction, of juvenile incompetent insane leadership. “This being human is a guesthouse,” Rumi said. All of the unexpected visitors – the joys and the sorrows, the beautiful and the horrible – let them all in, he said. (Because there is always something to learn). I’ve long appreciated these sentiments, but now – they feel a little too sentimental. This house is on fire, and has been for some time. Everything is at risk, including ourselves. Including our humanity.
Where we are today is in the position of taking stock of our humanity. (Thank-you Cory Booker!) Of letting go of our attachments to things and habits which kept us merely entertained and distracted. If there is love, if there is justice, if there is compassion and peace, these things live through us and must be our focus now. To be a covenantal community means to make these truly our highest ideals. There is in fact much to learn. That is what we are doing together.
All of the changes happening in the Fellowship – the renewal of our building, the coming changes in leadership at the Annual meeting, the re-imagining of our justice work, our continual welcoming of newcomers, our work on strategic planning for the grounds, my coming retirement and the beginning of interim and new ministries – these are all part of the learning and of the focusing of our energies. It’s hard some days, even harder on others, and also life-giving in many ways. For the changes we must be part of, we are just beginning to prepare. Stay with us, keep coming! May we each be a blessing to each other and the world.
In times such as these, poetry can be strong medicine for our wounds, our worries and our fears. For me it has long been the most articulate language of religion. A contemporary poet writes “it is a healing balm that reminds of what is essential, the invisible truths that lie beyond the grasp of reason yet sustain the soul’s deepest longing.” Not all poetry makes sense to me. But when it does make sense, when it speaks a language I understand, it is what I live for. April is Poetry Month! What good timing.
4/10 Soldiers of Conscience Film Screening (for parents) 6:30m register HERE
4/13 Family Breakfast, 8:45-9:45, pre-register HERE by 4/5
4/17 Parent Peer Support Group, 6:30-8PM
4/20 post-service Easter egg hunt
4/24 Nuts and Bolts of Conscientious Objection Q&A (parents and older children)
UPCOMING EVENTS for YOUTH
4/5 Hamilton in Eugene
4/6 Safehaven Humane Society Service @ 9:45 (wear your Earth Month Shirts!)
4/12-13 OWL overnight
4/24 Nuts and Bolts of Conscientious Objection @6:30, pre-register HERE
4/27 OWL 4:30-7
5/8 Conscientious Objection Workshop @6:30, pre-register HERE
More information about our events can be found below, and info for all events can be found at uucorvallis.org by clicking “News” in the menu bar and then selecting “RE Council” from the drop down menu.
With the world as it is, many parents and youth are thinking about the future of military service and the possibility of being drafted. To help all interested families become more informed about the topic and their choices, the RE Council’s Conscientious Objection Team has planned a 3-part series of learning opportunities for April and May.
We will begin with a film screening of the documentary Soldiers of Conscience. This film is most definitely not for young children, as it contains graphic footage from active war zones. It offers a balanced look at military service from those currently and formerly serving, some who are proud to serve and some who became objectors while serving. This film will serve as a grounding for the following offerings.
Next, we will have a presentation that is primarily geared toward parents who are interested in learning what they can be doing now to to help safeguard their child’s option to file as a conscientious objector upon reaching adulthood, should they choose that for themselves. This presentation will not contain graphic imagery, but the very idea of military conscription is unsettling to some, so please gauge your child’s readiness. We believe this to be appropriate for middle and high school students who are old enough to articulate their personal values around military service, and any parents interested in learning more about the topic.
And finally, we will offer a practical workshop space for youth (with parental permission) and parents to work on a packed of documents that could be used in support of a CO claim, should they wish to file as an adult.
Please help us plan by registering HERE for any of the events you would like to attend.
It’s that time of year again when we try to figure out how the heck Easter can/does/should fit into our Unitarian Universalist lives. Last year, we went as sustainable as possible with wooden refillable eggs and an absence of random plastic landfill fodder. It was good! This year, however, we found a cache of a gazillion plastic eggs up in a previously undiscovered storage cabinet in the classroom as we packed up for the big move out.
What’s a DRE to do? A JETPIG Easter, of course!
Children are encouraged to bring their Easter baskets, if they have them, for a post-service hunt on the lawn. This hunt will happen rain or shine because, well, we don’t have the classroom wing to lean on this year. Each egg color will correspond with one of our shared values and be traded in for objects, treats, and experiences intended to help cement the meaning of our shared values.
We hope to make this a memorable and explicitly UU way to celebrate a day that is part of our wider cultural narrative. And because we aim to always be inclusive, if your child has dietary restrictions, please send me a reminder so that we can be sure that everyone walks away feeling uplifted!
Kylee Polinder was caught in the act of service, reminding us all that you don’t have to be on an official team or wait to be asked to serve our community! I catch Kylee being helpful quite often in these parts, preparing for the Family Breakfast or entertaining younger children while their parents chat. But on this particular Sunday, she was helping Jerry and Roberta place hymnals throughout the sanctuary. It’s a backbreaking job when one person has to do it alone, so Kylee’s selfless offer to help was much appreciated by the house managers.
Thanks, Kylee, for being a shining example of joyful service! You are amazing!
I love that we are part of a religious tradition that embraces science! Last weekend the children experimented in teams to balance a random selection of food atop a water bottle by just a toothpick. It was harder than we were expecting, and took a lot of consensus seeking and problem solving, but by the end, both teams successfully found balance.
If you have any questions about what’s happening in RE, send them my way. I’m always happy to hear your thoughts, feedback, and ideas for the future of RE!
Congratulations to Kim D for completing all 9 Inquirers Series session! Kim asked to be presented with her finisher’s gift of a home chalice within the circle of her final Inquirers Series session rather than in front of the congregation. She attends services primarily online, and hopes to start helping with the Fellowship grounds. If you bump into her while she’s working on the property, be sure to introduce yourself.
As an introduction, Kim says:
“In 2025 I am going to continue growing and learning and finding myself after four plus decades with my husband in my life, 30 years of which he was very sick, and I was in a caregiver role. My new life is both scary and exciting, but I am up to the challenge of finding the adventurous me I was in my 20’s, combined with decades of life experience and wisdom added on, which will equal the New Me!”
Welcome, Kim! We’re so glad that you found your way to our community!
