This month our board meeting was held on Tuesday, 12/19. Highlights of this meeting:
The board reviewed proposed additions to the bylaws to include the Committee on Ministry. This committee has been active at the Fellowship for 10 years: a bylaw change will clarify its role as central to the priorities of the Board and congregation.
Approved an increase in hours for the RE Director to better reflect the needs of a growing RE program, thanks to the excellent work of our DRE Skyla King-Christisen.
Formed a subcommittee to design a review process for several ongoing priority commitments of the Board and congregation, including anti-racism work, responses to the climate crisis, and being an official Welcoming Congregation.
Made minor changes to the UUFC Board Policies to clarify outdated language.
Heard a proposal from the Grounds Stewards Team to relocate and replace the garden shed as a step in transforming the area between the Ampinefu (social hall) patio and the north lawn from “back of business”, haphazard storage to beautiful sacred space.
Corvallis Carbon Offset Fund: At the end of service on Sun 17 Dec, Brian Lee talked to us about local carbon offsets available through the Corvallis Carbon Offset Fund (CCOF). We’ll share the video of Brian’s talk once it’s posted, but in the meantime, we invite and encourage you to estimate your/your family’s carbon footprintand reduce that footprint via donation to the CCOF orother appropriate climate action/climate justice group.
Towards Net Zero: For those ready to make reducing and taking responsibility for their carbon emissions an ongoing commitment, we invite and encourage you to sign up for UUFC Climate Action Team’s Towards Net Zero project.
Tree Planting: We still need volunteers to help plant eight trees in the islands in the Crystal Lake/Willamette Park parking lot, 10:00 AM to Noon, Sat 20 Jan. This is our third year of collaborative tree planting with the City’s Urban Forestry Program. To volunteer, email michael.a.hughes1951@gmail.com with Subject Tree Planting.
You are invited to join Antiracism Learning Circles this winter and spring. It’s on zoom, so you can join from anywhere!First Unitarian in Portland, OR is the organizer, and we are eager to include participation from all faiths and allies everywhere. We hope you can join us and that you’ll help spread the word.
Full descriptions, schedules & registration information are HERE.
This winter & spring 2024 we are offering:
Seeing White – the real history of the US, the one none of us were taught in school. This is where to start your journey! (podcast series)
The Land That Has Never Been Yet – an examination of whether we have ever had a real democracy (podcast series)
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story – edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones – a profoundly reveling vision of American past and present
Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication – by Oren J. Sofer
The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy – by Stuart Stevens
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of our Bodies and Hearts – by Resmaa Menakem
The Sum Of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together – by Heather MaGhee
Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law – by Leah Rothstein & Richard Rothstein
Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable – by Joanna Schwartz
(Additional offerings will be added to the link above as they become availalbe.)
LEARNING CIRCLES are small discussion cohorts based on a book or podcast that provide:
Important learning about white supremacy, racism, and our national history
The opportunity to build trust and go deep in small group discussions over time
A safe place to have difficult discussions and deal with discomfort
An opportunity to create and strengthen relationships with others
Connection, focus and purpose in a virtual setting
How Do LEARNING CIRCLES Work?
Each cohort (typically 4-12) gathers for a series (from 4-10 sessions) of facilitated Zoom discussions.
Register for a particular Learning Circle. Meeting dates & times vary.
Each individual is given the opportunity to share reactions, then discuss as a group
We ask that you plan to attend all sessions so we can build bonds of trust and insight
For questions contact Jody Feldman @ feldmanjody@gmail.com
This week: Membership 101 with Bobbi Bailey. Inquirer’s Series is a series of 9 hour-long sessions designed especially for newcomers seeking more information about UUism and the Fellowship AND open to all others who are interested. Sessions take place every Sunday at 11:45 AM Room 8.
It’s a beautiful Willamette Valley winter day – a mixture of rain and sun, dark clouds and blue sky, herons, rainbows, full and rushing rivers. The orbit of the earth shifted last night – the longest night – and we have entered into the time of lengthening days, tiny bit by tiny bit. It’s the height of the Christmas season – hustle and bustle sounds too calm to describe the traffic and crowds (and nothing can quite describe the amounts of “stuff” piled flowing out of stores into homes.) The old familiar story of Christmas is waiting to be told in just a few days. As with all old familiar stories, there is much more to it than we assume. It is a gateway, a window into human needs and fears, triumphs and shortcomings still accurate after all these millenia.
This year seems especially hard for allowing ourselves to enjoy holidays; to be joyful can feel like denying the truths of suffering and hardship which are so present in this world in danger from greed, power, and war, among other things. The danger is real, of course, and cannot be denied. And yet, and yet. The beauty of the turning earth cannot be denied either. The possibilities for love, for understanding and compassion, for letting go of entitlement, for reaching out to others, for being peacemakers and lovers and helpers and friends are always present – always present within us and between us. They are never far away. Even today, with all its complications, everywhere I go people are giving good wishes to others. “Happy Holidays.” “Merry Christmas.” “Best wishes.”
The calendar of days will come to an end soon, and then we’ll begin again, as we always do. May we pause to give thanks for all the gifts of life as we are carried through the universe on this spinning earth. May we give good wishes, and have goodwill, for all we meet, including ourselves! May we renew our determination to be peacemakers, friends, companions and helpers, so to make this season of peace and goodwill real.
For each and every one of you – may the days of this season be beautiful. I’m sending love to you all – Jill
Join with Fellowship folks of all ages as we tell the story of Christmas again, with with many of us acting it out as it’s told. We’ll sing familiar carols, light the Christmas candles, and encourage each other to be peacemakers in all the ways we can.
5:30 PM Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
A quieter service of anthems and hymns, readings and silence, and lighting our candles into the beautiful darkness, as we deepen and renew our commitments to peacemaking.
The special offering for Christmas Eve will support One Story At A Time, and their work with displaced persons and refugees at the American border in Mexico.
People of almost all faith traditions practice some form of meditation. Why? Meditation is a super power!
Light Watkins, says, “Common side effects of daily meditation are increased energy and feelings of contentedness and inner happiness.”
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to sit silently and empty your brain to meditate. Meditation can include any number of practices that help you strip away distraction and encounter your innermost being. This can start with something as simple as focusing your eyes for a period of time on some object like a bird or a flame, and when your thoughts start to wander, notice, and then return your attention to your focal point. You may be wondering how on earth that helps you encounter your inmost self, but do this enough and you’ll start to identify patterns in what’s tugging at your attention. When we hurry and scurry, distract and scroll, it’s possible for us to live any number of days without encountering ourselves. Meditation is a way to reconnect to what is present within us.
Start with Guided Meditation!
Guided meditation is a great starting point for children and new meditators alike. You don’t have to be an expert, or have studied some ancient practice. All you have to do is close your eyes and visualize what you’re hearing.
When my children were younger, we started every day with a guided meditation, often the one linked on the left. Those are my two older kids, about fifteen years ago when we had family meditation time every morning. It was a great way to settle and center before getting into the work of the day.
Try joining your kids for a guided meditation, and discussing the experience over breakfast!
Make a Calm Down Jar
Calm-down jars are a mesmerizing way to help our brains step out of a stressful moment and settle like glitter.
Supplies:
1/2 C hot water
1/2 C corn syrup
1 Tbsp glitter
1-4 drops dish soap
jar
Mix water and corn syrup in the jar. Add glitter and shake. Dish soap will help the glitter clump less, but will also make it settle faster, so add a drop at a time and test before adding more.
Next time you’re stressed, give it a shake, and envision your feelings settling with the glitter.
Meditation Spaces Around the Valley
You can meditate absolutely anywhere but the Willamette Valley is rich with excellent places to help you flex your meditation muscles.
If the great outdoors is your thing, Starker Arts Park is a lovely place to sit for a nature meditation beside the pond and focus your attention on a dragonfly or the surface of the water. If you prefer gazing across the distance, Fitton Green is a delightfully short hike out to a bench that’s just perfect for observing the horizon and tracing the line where the sky meets the mountains.
Maybe insulated silence is more your jam. If so, check out the Grotto’s cliffside meditation chapel next time you’re in Portland. Pictured in the higher image on the left, it’s open to the public during operating hours and is a beautiful space for quiet contemplation in a warm and protected silence.
A little closer to home, you can enjoy a walking meditation in the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan’s courtyard labyrinth, shown in the lower image to the left. This space is always open to the public, though during office hours, you’re likely to have an audience of church administrators. And while I haven’t seen it myself, I’m told there’s a second labyrinth that’s open to the public behind the cancer center near the hospital.
Homework for Caregivers
Just being with ourselves is getting harder and harder as the world fills with digital distractions and opportunities for immediate gratification. It’s easy to want better for our children than we demand for ourselves, but role models are the best teachers. If you’ve been particularly stressed, or self-medicating with social scrolling, try setting aside a mere five minutes a day to try on of the techniques above. Notice how you feel in your body before and after your five minutes. Once you’ve tried it yourself a few times, consider inviting your kids to join you. Tell them why you wanted to try meditating, and how it’s going, and see if they’d like to try with you.
Meditation might seem weird to your children at first, but many children feel a sense of inner control that is comforting to them after a very short amount of time developing their meditation muscles. When so much outside of ourselves seems big and scary, knowing that we can turn inward and trust ourselves can be a huge source of security for the smallest members of our families.
In ancient Chinese practices, there was recognition that peace begins in the closest place – within each human heart and mind. “If there is to be in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the homes. If there is to be peace in the homes, there must be peace in the people.” This wisdom has been understood through generations in almost every culture, yet, we forget — we forget. Forgetting has become our cultural habit, distracted and limited as we are by stuff and ego, anxiety and fear. We should be careful, and thoughtful, about our words and deeds in this season of holidays. If we are going to sing about peace, we must first consider and contemplate how much peace we are nurturing in our own hearts, and how much peace we are creating in our relationships. If we are going to celebrate the balance of light and dark, day and night, we must consider and contemplate how well we move between the two – how much we understand the necessity of both. If we hope for the accomplishment of “goodwill to all” we have to start with our own families and neighborhoods.
Has it ever been harder to cultivate peace and goodwill? Perhaps not, and yet we are not the only humans to be alive amidst war and strife. Perhaps this is why the old admonishments feel so welcome, and so comforting. Once again, we are invited to begin again. May this then be our practice, our observance of the holidays and holy days, our celebration of the season: to find peace in the gift of every breath, to let that peace move through us and into the world as love and respect, as consideration for the well-being of all. Yes, it’s hard, yet nothing is more needed. May we hear the invitations, and may we begin again.
Sending love to you all in this season of great possibilities – Jill
All ages join together for this winter celebration of the longest night in story and song, followed by a sing-a-long of beloved songs from “Frozen”, because what better way to celebrate Winter?
