The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis
Choir rehearsals begin again on Sept. 4th. Our choir meets once a week (Wednesday nights from 7:00-9:00) to prepare music which enhances our Sunday services throughout the year. We embrace a wide range of music from this wide web of life, — as old as the 1300s and as recently composed as this year and many things in between. If you or someone you know would like to join a group of singers searching for beauty and wisdom in life through music, join us! ALL are welcome in the UUFC choir.
Happy Practicing and I hope to see you Sept. 4th or any subsequent Wednesday at 7:00PM.
Steven Evans-Renteria, Choir Leader
It’s that time of year again — school is starting, and facilities are being spruced up for the arrival of children and teachers. That goes for the Magic Flute Pre-School and our own Sunday Spirit Play program. The RE playground gets lots of use, and is in need of it’s annual replenishment of wood chips. Six or seven volunteers makes the spreading easy. Join us on Saturday morning, Sept. 7, for this fun and easy spruce-up job.
Questions?
contact Michael Hughes
More than 380 Corvallis School District students are identified as homeless and many more experience food insecurity and financial hardship. This Program connects families with critical resources so that students can arrive at school ready to learn. By donating to the Program, you can help provide access to essential community resources like housing, healthcare, emergency financial assistance, food pantries, employment opportunities, DHS benefits, and other forms of support.
Our Transylvanian Partner Church minister, Rev. Katalin Szasz-Cserey and her son Mate will be visiting us Sept. 20 – 20. The Partner Church team is making arrangements and welcomes help from all who are interested. Please contact Patricia and Janet if you would enjoy spending time with Kati and Mate who both have some English skills and access to Google Translate.
Ways to help:
Rev. Kati will preach on Sunday Sept. 29, followed by the dedication of our relocated Memorial Garden and the traditional Hungarian Szekely Gate at its entrance.
Grief Tending Circle 6-7:30 p.m. Monday September 16 in the UUFC Library
Come join us as we share our grief in a circle of compassion to acknowledge, listen to, and tend to the broken heart. Grief and its accompanying emotions like anger, frustration, loneliness, numbness, and confusion can be overwhelming to process alone. Whether your grief is from surviving the loss of a loved one, a breakup, a life transition, or bearing witness to the calamities of our planet including climate grief, wars and genocides, this gathering is for you.
Our time together will include poetry, sharing, writing, and a simple ritual.
Facilitators: Anna Coffman and Susan Sanford
Please sign up so we can be prepared for you and let you know what to bring.
Contact Susan and Anna for more information.
SAVE THE DATE! UUFC Women’s Retreat October 17-18 at the UUFC. Theme: Right Here, Right Now: Peace through Practice. We’ll gather to strengthen our center, strengthen our connections, strengthen our community. Volunteers, suggestions, and questions are welcome at womensretreat@uucorvallis.org. Team facilitators are Heather Thomas, Kimi Mayo, and Priscilla Galasso
Just before getting back to a regular schedule (with a little less summer spontaneity) I’m taking a trip to Transylvania next week, and Jamie Petts and Skyla King-Christison are coming too. We’ll be attending an International UU Women’s Convocation gathering in Koloszvar with U-U women from many different countries, and making a very short visit to our partner church in Bozod Korispatak. I was the newly-called Associate Minister of the Fellowship in 1995, and also a member of the UUA Board of Trustees, when the Partner Church program began (first called Sister Churches) and my family and I traveled to Transylvania to begin this partnership. Members of the Fellowship have nurtured and continued the partnership for nearly thirty years now, through changes of ministers in both congregations.
I’m so glad that Jamie and Skyla are both interested and able to come to this gathering, as a way of helping sustain this partnership and other of our international UU connections into a new generation. Transylvanian Unitarianism is our ancestral home, our lineage. It was a product of the Reformation in the Catholic Church in the 15th and 16th centuries – it was the so-called Radical Reformation which moved away from trinitarianism. Unitarians in Transylvania (now Hungary and Romania) kept this liberal tradition alive through centuries, through dictatorships and communism, through war and peace. We have much to learn from them today, from the present-day Hungarian Unitarian Church.
This visit is part of that ongoing learning. And, from Sept. 20 – 30 our Partner Church minister, and her son will be visiting us! Rev. Katalin Szasz-Cserey and Mate look forward to being here again (for Mate, his first trip to the US), to spending time in Oregon and with us, and to continue the learning and the partnership. There will be lots of opportunities to get together with them, including an all-Fellowship Hungarian Dinner on Friday Sept. 27.
I’m grateful to worship team member Susan Sanford for hosting the September 8 Sunday Service at the Fellowship, which will include the annual Joining of the Waters ceremony. It will be an intergenerational service. I hope you’ll plan to be there. All are invited to bring a small amount of water from somewhere important to you, to share in the ceremony.
THIS GROUP IS ON SUMMER HIATUS. PLEASE JOIN US IN SEPTEMBER.
3rd Sunday of each month @11:45
This group for mutual support in the realm of living with neurodivergence or mental health challenges is facilitated by Anthony Acquilano.
This group is not intended to be a substitute for professional care, and participants are discouraged from attempting to provide solutions to other members’ challenges. Instead, this is a space to share experiences, feel heard, learn from the experiences of others, and share resources.
Please register here to receive an email reminder on Thursday before each gathering.
All Fellowship families with children in RE are invited to a HEATED pool party on September 29th from 2-4.
If it’s not your child’s weekend with you, but you want to mingle with other parents, come anyway. If you’ve got a baby who’s not ready for swimming, come anyway and meet other families. Deeply connected families are the foundation of Fellowship life!
Location information will be sent to all registered families the week before.
More information can be found at the registration page HERE!
