PAST SERMONS
Starting in the Fall of 2023 we began posting the Weekly Announcements on the website, which included summaries of the sermons. If you are looking for sermons from before what we have here, you might check the Weekly Announcements Archives.
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2025-08-03 “Lammas – A Ritual of Ripening and Release”
Join us as we gather at the sacred threshold of Lammas, the festival of first harvest. In this season of fullness and change, we’ll pause to honor the fruits of our lives—what is ripening, what is ready to be shared, and what must be gently released.
Through song, story, ritual, and reflection, we’ll weave together ancestral wisdom and our own lived experience—carrying the grain of our becoming into community and into the unknown future.
Come celebrate the bread we are making with our lives.
Bring a bit of garden abundance to share with others, or nonperishable food for the South Corvallis Food Bank. Let us meet this turning with open hearts and hands.
We’ll also be introduced to our interim minister, Rev. Alex McGee, who started with us on August 1.
Wheel of the Year Team
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2025-07-27 “Navigating These Waters”
As we near the end of a year filled with threshold moments, cultural upheaval, and deep transformation, we gather to reflect on the journeys we’ve taken. Through brief stories offered by members of our community, we’ll explore what has challenged us, what has grounded us, and what has brought joy amid uncertainty. Together, we’ll honor the resilience, practices, and wisdom that have helped us navigate these shifting tides.
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2025-07-20 “Change Happens”
The world has gotten smaller and we’re affected more strongly than we have been before. The truth is we have always been connected and change has been a constant. It seems so accelerated now. What can make it easier? Come and find out!
Hosted by Rev. Leslie Chartier
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7/13/2025 A Celebration of Shared Ministry
We come to the end of a chapter in the life of the Fellowship – a chapter covering twelve years of ministry shared between us. Twelve years of immense change in the world, twelve years of leaning into it all together. I have so much gratitude – it would be impossible to thank you enough, but I will aim in that direction. Now we move toward the future – two new chapters: the ongoing life and health of the Fellowship, and my transition into retirement. We will move in different directions, but the connections we’ve made and the love we’ve shared will remain. Let’s share blessings for each other as we take these new steps.
With Rev. Jill McAllister
After the service, stay to dance! Adriel Molk will lead several easy folk dances. Room TBD, depending on temperatures….
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“Between Us” 7/6/2025
In the end, all the elements of a religious and spiritual life – the practices and beliefs, the things we learn, the ways in which we change, what we yearn for and need, and more – lead into how we exist in relation to ourselves, others and Life. What we do, think and feel, affect what occurs between us. For thirteen years this has been my framework, shared in writing and preaching. This morning let’s think about interdependence, and I’ll aim to summarize what I’ve learned with you and from you.
We’ll also take time to reflect on the huge project of renovation of our classroom wing, now almost finished. We’ll extend our thanks and appreciation to the volunteers who made it possible, and invite all to have a tour of the renewed spaces after the service.
With Rev. Jill McAllister
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“On Ministry” 6/29/25
As we get closer to a ministerial transition – a major event in the life of the Fellowship – let’s consider what ministry is in the UU tradition, what roles a minister plays in congregational life, and what that means for the lives of members and friends of the Fellowship.
With Rev. Jill McAllister, and special music from Johanna Beekman
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“Return To Love” 10 AM 6/22/25
When we’re afraid, when we’re angry, when we are confused and wonder what to do, here’s a possibility. Return to love. Return to love again, and again and again. The more we are willing to return to this starting point, the more we learn about it. Love can mean courage. It can mean kindness and concern. It can mean justice and perseverance and compassion. When I began (again) at the Fellowship in 2013, our first theme was Love. Let’s start there again and consider what we’ve learned. With Rev. Jill McAllister
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“Trans Ancestors, Queer Descendants and a Liberating Present” 6/15/25
UUFC’s Queerly Beloved group and Sexuality and Gender Diversity Justice Team host this Pride Month Sunday Service, and welcome guest preacher Rev. Lazarus Justice Jameson. The service will include remembering some Fellowship history around LGBTQIA+ welcoming and justice work, and embodying our commitments to LBGTQIA+ welcoming and justice in these days of increased danger. It will also include a blessing of chosen names and families. Please join us!
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“Who We Choose To Become” 6/8
What kind of identity do we choose to embrace to meet the moments that life, events and circumstances throw at us? It is not just to know who we are but to decide who we need to be and become. A place where our chosen identity, fueled by our behaviour will lead to a world of our values. Come reflect with Rev. Mwibutsa
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“River of Life” 6/1/25
The ‘regular’ church year – or the church year as it corresponds to the school year – is drawing to a close. Once again it is time to reflect on and celebrate the gifts and responsibilities of being this beautiful multi-generational congregation.
We will honor and share blessings with children and youth who are moving into new areas of religious exploration. We’ll honor and share blessing with our bridging high school senior on her way to becoming a young adult. We’ll renew our commitments to support one another at every bend in the river of life. Please join us! With Skyla King-Christison and all.
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“Art Works: Reflections on the First Year of PRAx” 5/25
Join us to welcome to the Fellowship Peter Betjemann, the Executive Director of PRAx at OSU. The new Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts aims to spotlight intersections between the arts and all other disciplines at the university. It focuses on connections, both classical and innovative. Patricia Reser herself understands it this way: “The arts invite us to see, to think, to listen, to feel, and to reflect. I can’t imagine a more urgent path for humans and for humanity.” Peter Betjemann will reflect with us on this first year of PRAx and the vital role of the creative arts in these times in the world.
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“In the Middle of a Gloria” 5/18
The UUFC choir, under the direction of Steven Evans-Renteria, presents a service of beautiful music with readings and contemplation, to nurture us inside and out. With the added artistry of Lauren Servias at the piano and George Beekman on percussion, and Rev. Jill McAllister in support. Come ready to indulge and appreciate, then stay afterward for our Annual Meeting – all UUFC members are needed and encouraged to attend.
SUNDAY SERVICE VIDEOS
We have saved videos from most of the services from the past several years. Occasionally a service video doesn’t get recorded, or saved.
YouTube Playlists:
- Services from 2025
- Services from 2024
- Services from 2023
- Services from 2022
- Services from 2021 (incomplete)
Service Videos (January 2020 – March 2023): The link opens a pdf of an older method of storing links to service videos, before we started uploading them to YouTube.