Today’s story is about promises…and about gardens! Have you ever made a promise? They’re important! But it’s also important to ask for help when we need it, and that’s what happens in the story.
After you listen, you can make your own garden of promises! We all keep lots of promises every day, some big, some small. What are some of the promises you keep? You can make these paper flowers and write some of the promises on the petals or leaves.
Today’s story celebrates autumn! It was the autumn equinox last Thursday, which is also called Mabon. So here is a re-imagining of one of the many myths about the seasons, a new way to tell the Greek story of Hades and Persephone.
After you listen, one of the best things about autumn is APPLES. Apples are great for eating and cooking, but did you know you can also make dolls out of them? Here’s how!
The theme will be “Belonging.” It will focus on our feelings of belonging, especially in this pandemic and politically fractious time. Where and to whom do we belong? What does that mean as we age, change employers, or move our home from one community to another? How have our increasingly diverse gender, sexual, ethnic, racial, and political identities affected our sense of belonging? When have we felt excluded from groups or organizations, and when have we excluded others? How do we build a community together where we feel like we belong? We will of course adhere to all COVID protocols in place at the time to provide a very low-risk experience. Please mark your calendars, and pass this notice along to friends and especially any newer members whose primary identity is as a male.
The theme will be “Belonging.” It will focus on our feelings of belonging, especially in this pandemic and politically fractious time. Where and to whom do we belong? What does that mean as we age, change employers, or move our home from one community to another? How have our increasingly diverse gender, sexual, ethnic, racial, and political identities affected our sense of belonging? When have we felt excluded from groups or organizations, and when have we excluded others? How do we build a community together where we feel like we belong? We will of course adhere to all COVID protocols in place at the time to provide a very low-risk experience. Please mark your calendars, and pass this notice along to friends and especially any newer members whose primary identity is as a male.
Group Dynamics: Responding Skillfully When Hard Stuff Happens
February 2022
In these times of necessary distancing, strong emotions lie unexpectedly closer to the surface, and many of us have become more vulnerable in community than is comfortable. Even in the best of times, upset and hurt can be caused despite our best intentions, even when we are in agreement. Meaningful dialogue when true differences or disagreements are present often can be difficult, and in these times has become particularly fraught. It’s become easier and less painful to simply withdraw than to stay engaged, hoping that things will somehow magically change.
And yet. Religious community is where we practice the art of belonging, helping each other to grow and deepen our spiritual lives, understanding that all thriving must be mutual. In that spirit, UUFC is offering this practical, skills-based training, which focuses on helping to increase our collective ability to compassionately navigate disagreement and strong emotions. We’ll consider “group dynamics,” especially ways to respond skillfully and with care when emotions start to run high and hard stuff begins to happen. These situations are always possible — perhaps even more so now as everything we do carries more worry for the world and adds to our personal burdens.
Come, let us learn more about how to thrive, together.
If you missed this workshop, you can watch the RECORDING here.
Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, a liberal religious congregation that has played an important part in this community for more than 60 years. Our religious tradition is more than 400 years old, dating back to the time of the protestant reformation in Europe.
Unitarianism and Universalism were two varieties of liberal Christianity, evolving over centuries, primarily in Europe and North America. By the time the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged in 1961 to become the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations of North America, (the UUA) our religious perspectives had expanded to include wisdom and teachings from all world religions, from science and humanism, art and mysticism, and much more. The UU Fellowship of Corvallis is still a member congregation of the UUA, and we still offer a broad and open approach to religious belief and practice.
Rev. Jill McAllister
The liberal tradition we uphold is best defined as an ongoing movement toward religious freedom, reason in religion, and the embrace of diversity in religious belief and practice. We are a community held together not by beliefs or creeds, but by these shared values of freedom, reason, and tolerance. We are a caring community, helping each other navigate the realities of life. We are a community of seekers; knowing there is always more to learn and understand, we explore many ideas, philosophies, perspectives and modes of worship and spiritual growth. We are a pluralistic congregation, dedicated to inclusivity and justice. Each individual is encouraged to aim toward these values and we are all called to live in right relations. We are a welcoming congregation, honoring the diversity of beliefs, practices and lifestyles among us. We are an active multi-generational congregation, working together in all the ways we can to increase justice and compassion in the world. We bring our whole lives, and together we face the realities of birth and death, sorrow and joy, sickness and health, knowing and not knowing. This is what it means to be religious. This is what it means to be Unitarian Universalists. We hope you’ll join us.
Some of our neighbors and some members of our UUFC community have asked about the Black Lives Matter banner that hangs outside on our building. What does support for Black Lives Matter mean for a faith with “Universalist” in our very name?
“To proclaim that Black Lives Matter is not to say that other lives do not. In this church we celebrate the inherent value of every life. Each life matters, but not all lives are equally at risk. Black Lives Matter is an attempt to spotlight and interrupt the persistent patterns of institutional racism which always leave persons of color on the margins, more vulnerable, with less protection. Black Lives Matter insists that the Beloved Community will not be achieved while these differences persist. Black Lives Matter calls us to solidarity in the service of justice. Black Lives Matter is an affirmation that we have not…yet…given up on the American Dream.”
-Rev. Bill Sinkford
Rev. Jill McAllister’s response to controversy with the UU Minister’s Association.
A daily blog by Nicole Cardoza where you can sign up to receive a daily email on a variety of topics aimed at addressing systemic and interpersonal practices that uphold white supremacy and systems of oppression; resources to support your education; and action you can take to practice anti-racism.
Black Lives Matter initiative working for policy change to address police killings, excessive force, profiling and racial discrimination, and other problems in law enforcement.
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. UUA Common Read 2015-2016.
An NPR podcast “hosted by journalists of color, [which] tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between.”
The racial profiling, police brutality, voting restrictions, and mass imprisonment of African Americans and other people of color in the United States (dubbed the “New Jim Crow” by civil rights advocate and scholar Dr. Michelle Alexander) is a moral outrage. “As Unitarian Universalists (UUs), our dedication to global justice, equity, and dignity leads us to join hands across lines of race, class, age, and geography and work for an end to the injustices faced by black people in our communities, so that every person is treated equally under the law and has a fair chance at life.” UUA on Black Lives Matter
