Let’s go to camp! Scholarships until 3/31

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Camp is a formative experience for UU youth, and we want as many young people to have the chance to go as possible! As such, the UUFC Endowment Fund has set aside funds to supplement the cost of camp. PLEASE take advantage of these funds! You do not need to prove need to apply. We just want to get you to camp! Very often, these scholarship funds go unutilized, and we deeply want to use them up to create memories and connections for our youth. 

$2,000 is available for Camp Blue Boat or Eliot camp attendance in 2025.  Four $500 scholarships are available but higher amounts of funding may be possible if the $2,000 is not allocated in $500 lots.  Please apply for UUFC scholarships HERE by March 31st, and know that additional scholarships are available from the regional organization HERE.

Early registration for Camp Blue Boat (rising 6th graders through seniors in high school) is open now, and the discount ends on March 17th. If we have youth attend, I will drive the group to Seattle to catch the bus with other youth to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, so please be sure to select that option unless your family plans to drive all the way to Coeur d’Alene.

Quilters Wanted!

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Budgeting season means we’re looking ahead to next year’s RE programs and we’re dreaming big! A piece of our plan for the coming year involves a banner for each age group, on which they will write a word or phrase for what they learn each week, and we can enjoy watching the banner fill with new ideas and knowledge over the course of the year. If you have the skills and time to contribute to this dream, I would love to hear from you. I will supply the materials for willing quilters to piece together. If you can offer this gift of time to the RE program, call or email Skyla King-Christison for more information!

“Keeping the Flame Alive” 3/9/25

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Every week we light a chalice as a symbol of our liberal religious heritage and a reminder of our values and ideals – freedom, justice, peace and love. People before us have nurtured and maintained communities around these goals for generations, often in times of struggle, like these times.  In generations to come, we will be the ancestors who took up the struggle, who maintained the community, who kept the flame of the chalice alive.  How do we become those ancestors? 

With Rev. Jill McAllister

Outreach Offerings For March

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Our monthly outreach offerings in March will support the work of the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, a state-wide collaboration of faith groups, which the Fellowship has partnered with for several years. IMIrJ’s mission is to accompany and equip communities and people of faith in Oregon to advance immigrant justice through the direct accompaniment of immigrants facing detention and deportation, policy advocacy at local, state, and national levels, and purposeful organizing. Through networks of relationships, we create a more just world for immigrants, migrants, and asylum seekers by taking immediate humanitarian action and long-term collective, intentional action. 

Today

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February 28, 2025: “Today marked one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy.” (Tom Nichols, author of “Our Own Worst Enemy”.)

I am no political pundit.  I don’t have a ready opinion about everything.  Often, I don’t know what to say.  Today is one of those days.  I can only begin to describe the sickening feeling, the sinking in of the brutishness, the mocking betrayal of an ally – who is probably the most heroic person of our times.  The deepening grief over the deaths of so many and the coming deaths of so many more.  

If at any point in the history of the UU Fellowship of Corvallis it was imagined that the values we uphold, that we work and sometimes live for, were casual, or quaint, or of little importance, that time is not now.  If we have not yet grown into an adult sense of responsibility for these values – the time for that growth is now.  Lives depend on it. Our lives, other lives, the life of the Earth.   The freedom to live and thrive. The embrace of diversity.  The primacy of justice and compassion.

When we gather on Sunday – this week and going forward – it will be for the strengthening and encouragement of each other, to let go of what is no longer necessary and lean in to what is asked of us.  I hope to see you there!

Website Update Coming — Feedback Needed!

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Over the next few weeks we will be gathering feedback on the website for an update planned at the end of May. Start thinking about your experience using our website. What do you like, and what changes can you imagine? Every suggestion is valuable information. If you are new to the Fellowship, we would especially love to hear from you.

A survey will come out in the next couple of weeks, so please start gathering your thoughts!

Justice Theatre: Major Barbara Performances, 3/28-3/29

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Ticket reservations are open for this year’s Justice Theatre staged reading of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara on Friday and Saturday, March 28-29, at 7:30pm in the Sanctuary. This Victorian-era play is as witty as it is timely, and it will make you laugh and wince by turns. Come out and enjoy some theatre that will make you think while supporting a good cause—this year’s proceeds will go to support the work of local nonprofit Vina Moses Center.

Tickets available. Pay what you can.

Reserve Tickets

Join the Greeter Team

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We are ready – every Sunday – on a rotating basis to be at our best, to show up on the Side of Love and to meet people where they are. Come out of your shell and join this team of uplifting and welcoming people.

Speak to anyone at the Greeters’ desk for more information.

The Long Legacy of Liberal Religion: What’s It Worth Now? 3/2/25

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Where do we come from? From a long line of reformers and innovators, courageous dissenters and broad-minded humanitarians, among others. The liberal religious tradition includes people in all times and places. It has never been the dominant culture, and has often been a dangerous path. And now? And here? What are this tradition and its high aims worth to us, today?

With Rev. Jill McAllister

Following the service, all who are interested are invited to join in another “Transition Talk” beginning at 11:45 in the Sanctuary.

Growing the Partner Church Team

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The UUFC Partner Church team promotes international understanding, social justice, global ethics, and liberal religion through partner church relationships. To find out more and to join our growing team, please contact Heather E. via this email link. “In 1995, I bought a bumper sticker for my new car that said, “Visualize Whirled Peas.” It hit a chord with me on many levels – it was funny, I am a home economist, and it aligned with a more profound meaning.
It usually takes an event to spur one into action, to want to try to help this troubled world. I want to finally do something to help others and be a positive influence in the world – even if my efforts seem small.

This is how it begins, doesn’t it? By my being willing to send a message out into the universe? Will there ever be a moment when YOU will step forward and join others who want to help make our world a better place – or will you just visualize a blender of whirled peas?” – Heather E.