It’s Time to Register for the New Year!

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

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.”

Tuna Roast & Picnic

Join us for the UUFC Tuna Roast and Picnic in the Park at Avery Park’s Lion Shelter on Labor Day afternoon! 

This family-friendly, annual social event will begin at 4:00pm with games and conversation. The marinated, grilled, fresh tuna and corn on the cob will be served beginning around 5:00pm. Plan to bring along your own plate, utensils, and drink ware, and a dish to share with others. Seating is limited so camping chairs are also encouraged. Near the Lions Shelter are a small play structure, swings, a train engine for climbing and exploring, the dinosaur bones, and plenty of space to run or roll down hills. 

Contact Rich Brainerd with questions.

UUFC Parking Lot Pop-up Rummage Sale, 8/31

10:00 AM -1:00 PM in the UUFC Parking Lot


You surely have unwanted items in your closets, drawers, cupboards, or garage that have been languishing there for too long. Put them to use by selling them at our annual UUFC parking lot rummage sale. Someone will be happy to have your unwanted items and the Fellowship will benefit from your donations.

Get ready for the bargains at the UUFC PARKING LOT POP-UP RUMMAGE SALE – Saturday, August 31: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. Public welcome.
• Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. Gather items that you no longer need or want.
• Price items and bring to our parking lot on 8/31 by 9:40 am.
• Display and “sell” your items.
• Send buyers with their purchases to central cashiers. All sales benefit UUFC.
• At 1:00 take any unsold items back with you.

It’s fun! It’s social! You will de-clutter your house and earn money for the Fellowship.

Questions: Contact Bonnie Morihara

UUFC August Hike, 8/24

The August Fellowship hike will be to Cone Peak, near Tombstone Summit east of Sweet Home on Saturday, Aug 24, 2024. It is shifted from its normal last Saturday due to the popular Rummage Sale on the last Saturday this month.

Contact Jim Wagner for more information.

“Making the Invisible Visible” – 8/11/24

Our UUFC mission statement begins with “We gather as an inclusive religious community…” And we do our best to be welcoming to all who come. And, we still have lots to learn about what broad inclusion really means, and needs, and looks like. We’re at the beginning of a new collaboration with ARC of Benton County, and look forward to learning more today from ARC staff member Misha Marie and Board President John Gottchall, about the work of ARC, serving and supporting people with Developmental Disabilities.

Please join us. The service will be indoors today. Following the Sunday Service, at 2 PM, please join in the Celebration of Life for Louise Ferrell. Those wishing to join online may do so by using the regular Sunday Service link.

Music Sharing Night THIS WEEK!!! 8,7

Music Sharing Night is coming up!! Come see people from the Fellowship sharing their music!

We still have room for more performers, so please sign up! Do you play an instrument, or have a song you want to sing? We want to hear you your music!!!

Not ready for the big stage? No problem! This is not the big stage. These are your friends at the Fellowship. Just do it!

We’ve had people make their performance debut right here at UUFC. Perform as a solo act, or form a group. Original music is welcome and encouraged. Each act will have 10 minutes to perform.

To sign up, please fill out a form:

Music Sharing Night Participation Form

David Servias

UUFC Director of Music

I am so grateful for all the time and effort that has gone into making these Weekly Announcements what they are today – integrated into the website, easily readable on phones and other hand-held devices, convenient for folks who first simply need to know what, when and where. These have been beautiful updates, and have received lots of compliments And, I’ve heard from some of you that you miss a “newsletter” which you could read all the way through, which includes a broad look at the life of the Fellowship and UUism in general. I think we can have both, and should.

I’ve had conversations with a few people about a monthly publication which is more like a journal than a newsletter. Instead of including announcements about events, which the Weekly Announcements do very well, this journal would focus on ideas – our theologies, our philosophies of religion and religious exploration, our newly articulated shared values, our stories, our local and international partners, our own religious and spiritual commitments, and more.

I’m ready and willing to start this publication this month. I’d be happy to hear from any of you who might like to help – as writers, editors, planners, etc. I’d be happy to know if you have ideas for a name for such a publication. Please connect with me if you do.

Meanwhile, here in the depth of summertime, I encourage you to stop and be amazed by the bounty of our Willamette Valley home, if you aren’t already doing that every day. Amidst the swirling of politics and cultures, the changing Earth and climate, the too many details and the too few deep connections, help yourself pause to rest and see or feel or consider a larger view, a Life which is so much more than our own thoughts and experience. And in that pause, count a few blessings, and send blessings on to others.

See you Sunday — Jill

Building Renovation Project Update

We were hoping that construction on our classroom wing renovation project would begin in September, or maybe October. It looks like JANUARY is more realistic! The project team received a timetable last week from Gerding Builders, outlining the many, many pre-construction tasks still needing to be done, including several city permits, engineering decisions, final drawings, sub-contracting, and more. The schedules for permits plus the availability of contractors have the greatest effect on timing.

So, we’ll keep going with our preparations for emptying the building, at a slightly relaxed pace. We’re only now becoming aware of the huge amount of work needed to install fire sprinklers in the building – involving installing a new pipe under the parking lot from the street to the RE wing, and building a small “house” to contain all of the connections from that pipe to the interior plumbing. This is what is needed in order for our building to meet current fire safety code!

Thank-you to all who have already volunteered to help with a variety of tasks plus offered short-term storage for the contents of our building. We’ll keep going in making our plans, cleaning out rooms and closest, packing boxes, etc.
This project is going to happen! Please stay tuned.