We’re continuing a series of Sundays focusing on values identified by thousands of UUs as central to who we are and strive to be now as we move into the future. We’ve considered love, transformation and pluralism. This week we’ll consider interdependence, which, before it can be considered as a value, must be understood as a fact of life – biologically, ecologically, and spiritually. Join us!
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Between Us (November 2023)
It is a challenge to be present to the world – a challenge to be willing to acknowledge all that feels frightening and dangerous. If some years ago many of us felt successful and safe in the world, and deserving of it, we do not have that luxury now. We know more, we’ve seen more, we’ve learned more about what is true. As Unitarian Universalists, that has long been our aim – to see and learn more truth. This is not an exercise in intellectual posturing, though sometimes we have been mistaken in that direction.
We’re working with the theme, “Building A New Way,” this year – because we must! If it were only climate change we were facing, it would be immoral to not change the ways we live and interact with everything and everyone else. As we all know, there is more.
I’ll admit, the amount of change which is happening, and the amount which is needed, is daunting, and often, I feel discouraged. Here at the Fellowship, it can feel dizzying: folks who’ve been here a long time miss the way (they think) things were and wonder who will carry on when they are too tired to do everything, while folks who are new wonder what is going on, how to find out, what are the requirements, and where is the calendar of events?
I try to remind myself, every day, that this is exactly what change looks and feels like! We are in fact changing, and that is very good news. But it’s unsettling. Of course it is. I want to remind all of you of this as well. We need to be able to step back from our wonders, worries and concerns, and help ourselves and each other recognize that we have set off from whatever shore (and assumptions) we may have stood on, and now we are in the currents, together.
Together is the most important thing. When faced with this kind of unsettledness (which is increased by all the anxiety we piled up during the pandemic) we too often resort to finding others to blame for our frustrations and fears – the elders, the younger, the new ones, the old ones, etc.
For these times we need as much openness as possible, as much willingness to learn as possible, as much loving-kindness as possible. We need folks who are willing and able to listen and lead and guide for the good of all. We need to help one another live into our covenant of right relations. The future is unfolding between us – may we stay focused on our highest ideals!
Queerly Beloved 11/19
Sunday, November 19th 4-6 pm
Join Jess and Bobbi and friends in the Fellowship Social Hall for a potluck with some icebreaker games. Bring a dish of food to share. All are welcome. We meet monthly on the 3rd Sunday in the afternoon. Join LGBTQ+ folx and allies for social gatherings centered on queer issues and themes.
We understand the importance of queer community, and our goal is to provide a safe space where people can find that sense of belonging right here in Corvallis. Questions: connect@uucorvallis.org
Ginny Gibson on the Road!
You may already know that Ginny Gibson courageously took an Adult RE workshop assignment and transformed it into one of the most beloved Sunday services of the year — her Knowings and Callings talk for Pride Month. What you might not know is that last week she quietly took her moving presentation on the road to the Church of the Brethren in La Verne, California. In this full circle moment, Ginny spoke in the Spiritual Formation program as a kind of thank you to the congregation that once supported her so well and that featured prominently in her presentation. She was welcomed by old friends and an evening reception where members of the LGBTQIA+ community came together to reflect on several decades’ worth of social change.
Ginny, we are so proud of you! Thanks for being brave enough to shine your light near and far!
Fail Fest 2023! 12/15 6PM
There is no progress without failure. Yet, in our culture that is focused on sharing highlight reels, it’s easy to forget that there are no real overnight successes. The road to “what’s next” is littered with beautiful “almosts” and “not quites.” Before you start thinking about New Year’s resolutions, come share in a celebration of this past year’s failures that got you to where you are now.
We will reflect on a year’s worth of things that didn’t quite go our way, grieve the dreams that maybe we’re giving up on, and celebrate the new vision that is forming as a result of our failures.
At this event, you can expect some tears, some laughs, and some dancing under disco lights. Best of all, you can expect to walk away with a deeper sense of community because vulnerable sharing and mutual support are an exceptional foundation for new friendships.
The evening will conclude with a potluck snack dinner and discussion. Please bring your favorite comfort food to share!
Don’t miss it! Come let us celebrate you and your awesome, brave failures!
Daily Practice: a Weekly Reminder 10/29/2023
Samhain, Halloween, All Souls and All Saints Days. All describe a point on the Wheel of the Year when the veil between worlds is thinner, according to the ancient Celtic calendar and other traditions. Inwardly, it’s a time to remember that the world we live in is many worlds, many layers, constant connections between life and death; continual birth, continual growth, unending relatedness even among the cells of our bodies. Because even at the cellular level everything is in motion and constantly changing, we are not so much beings as “becomings.” The parts of Life we “see” and what we think we know, are fragments. Sometimes it takes being in the dark, like now when night comes sooner, being in states of “not seeing” to begin to feel the depth and breadth of our connectedness.
At the Fellowship we take time to honor ancestors, to bring to mind those who have died, to feel how the past and present are intertwined, to feel how we are connected to the lives of those who came and went before, to feel how we carry their lives in ours. We think about ourselves as ancestors and of our parts in this great progression. We think of what we may now be setting in motion for those who are coming after us.
We can do this with attention to breath – the coming and going of it, to us, through us, not of our own making. We can realize that waves upon waves of lives are carried on each breath, and that what we call “my life” is really simply Life moving in everything. We can let ourselves be carried.
This can be a daily practice – to give thanks for all the lives that are carried by each breath, which carries the possibility of “me” and all who are coming after. May we ask for the courage to be ancestors worthy of those who will live in the world to come, sources of peace and loving kindness, expressions of love, examples of compassion, nurturers of justice. Knowing that we are ancestors together, and that we are all carried by the breath of Life, may we bow to this day with gratitude.
Climate Action Opportunities 10/29
From the Climate Action Team:
There is no more important climate work than the influencing of legislation and policy, whether at the national, state, or local level. Climate Action Opportunities, refreshed weekly on Saturdays, provides three or four curated, quick opportunities to do just that. We have a list of organizations whose calls to action we amplify, and the number from each organization.
To help assess the engagement of UUFC members and friends in faith-based climate action and to encourage such action, please anonymously share the number of the actions below you take this week using this Climate Action Form. Optionally, you may anonymously also share other recent climate action.
Sat 28 Oct
Columbia Riverkeeper
GTN Xpress Project: On 10/19/23, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorized a huge expansion of fracked gas in the Northwest. Grassroots organizations, community groups, Tribal nations, and dozens of elected officials across the Northwest are joining forces to push back on FERC’s approval of GTN Xpress, a proposal by TC Energy to push more gas through its aging GTN pipeline. Our coalition is going to challenge FERC’s decision to approve the GTN Xpress project. Sign the petition to challenge FERC’s decision.
Environment Oregon
Single Use Packaging: Walmart is America’s largest grocer by revenue — but far too many shoppers are coming home with a pile of single-use plastic packaging that they didn’t ask for. Too often, this plastic packaging ends up as waste, clogging landfills and polluting the environment. Walmart can change its packaging practices and set a precedent for others to follow. Add your name to Urge Walmart to put wildlife over waste
Interfaith Power & Light
Western Arctic drilling: Oil companies are pushing for more drilling in the fragile Western Arctic landscape. .As people of faith, we have a moral responsibility to care for our Sacred Earth. We must ensure these irreplaceable landscapes are free from destructive oil and gas development. Tell the Bureau of Land Management: No drilling in the Arctic.
Virtual GA 2024 Theme Announcement
The theme for 2024 Virtual General Assembly is Love Unites, Stories Ignite. Virtual GA participants will receive:
- Memorable, high-impact content for faith formation, with an easy and accessible experience
- Sense of belonging in the online community, with flexible approaches for a variety of needs
- Renewed connection to the wider faith of Unitarian Universalism.
- Inspiration and support to carry forward to your local congregations and beyond.
The 63rd General Assembly will take place virtually Thur., June 20 through Sun., June 23, 2024.
Thank You! 10/29
~Thank-you to Michael Hughes and Russ Karow for taking steps toward our vision of a renewed campus, by planting native sedge (and hopefully camas) in the small wetlands that crosses the back garden.
~Thank you to Susan Sanford, Claudia Hall, and Anna Coffman for working to create several sacred spaces, indoors and outdoors, to be places for centering and reflection, for contemplation and quieting, for nurture of mind and body. One of those places will be an altar to invite reflection, in the library.
