The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis
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The South Corvallis Food Bank is feeling the loss of funding for food to provide to Corvallis/Benton County hungry neighbors. Below are lists of foods that are especially needed. You can bring food donations to the UUFC on Sundays. There are two baskets to the left as you enter Foyer. If you want to deliver to the Food Bank yourself we ask that you please put “UUFC” put in the ‘received from’ field on the receipt.
Can we aim for 100 to 500 pounds of food this month?
Thank you! from the Secure Housing and Food for All Justice Team.
Items needed:
High-Priority Items:
Fresh fruits and produce
instant side dishes (Rice-a-Roni, tuna helper, stuffing, etc.)
The Food Bank cannot accept bulk or home-canned items, or items without labels.
The Food Bank is located in South Gate Plaza. Address: 1800 SW 3rd St #110, Corvallis, OR 97333 Open Mondays and Wednesdays 1 – 3 PM, Thursdays 5 – 7 PM, and Saturdays 10 AM – 12 PM. They could use more volunteers!
A huge THANK YOU! to the 30 volunteers who painted 8 classrooms and halls with 50 gallons of paint! We are making great progress right on schedule.
Phase 2 indoor painting will start in June after Gerding Construction Company moves out and all the new sprinkler pipes have been painted by a professional painter. We also will be stain-painting the exterior of the classroom wing as the weather warms up.
Check out the photos on the display in the Foyer and please sign up when the next round of help requests happen.
Linn Benton Food Share is the central food hub for a strong network of 68 local, non-profit agencies including emergency food box pantries, public meal sites, at-risk population programs and gleaning groups, which collectively distribute over 3 million pounds of food annually.
The food pantries in Alsea, Monroe and Philomath need a little boost since cuts to the USDA March 2025 affected 30%-40% of their food sources. Approximately 400 families, mostly children, are dependent on these pantries for their food sources.
This month’s newsletter contains some important information for parents about RE in the month and year ahead, so please read carefully!
UPCOMING EVENTS for FAMILIES
5/4 Summer Camp Registration Deadline, more info and registration HERE.
5/11 Final Family Breakfast of the year, Mother’s Day Edition, pre-register HERE.
5/15 Final Parent Peer Support Group of the year, 6:30-8PM
4/25 Parent Feedback and Q&A session, noon on back patio
5/1 River of Life Sunday with Stepping Stone Ceremony
UPCOMING EVENTS for YOUTH
5/11 and 5/25 4:30-7 OWL regular workshops
More information about our events can be found below, and info for all events can be found at uucorvallis.org by clicking “News” in the menu bar and then selecting “RE Council” from the drop down menu.
At the Fellowship, it’s our cherished tradition to celebrate children and youth as they move into new age groups with a special Stepping Stone Ceremony. Each child will receive a gift, words of affirmation, and be honored by the congregation as they journey forward in the river of life.
This year’s celebration will be especially joyful! We’re adding a new age group to our Sunday programs, renaming some of our spaces, and—wonderfully—we have more children to honor than in recent years.
If your child is entering kindergarten, 5th, or 6th grade (or their equivalents), please complete this form to register them for the ceremony. We look forward to marking this milestone together in community.
May will be our last family breakfast of the year before we break for summer. It also happens to fall on Mother’s Day! Rather than moving the date, our gracious hosts, the Polinder family, plan to make it a extra special to honor all the moms. Please plan to join us for this beloved gathering, and help with our planning by registering HERE at least a few days before.
Family breakfast will resume in the fall!
We are excited for our children to explore our shared values through puppetry and folk tales with accomplished professional puppeteer, Linda Zittel! The last day to register for camp is May 4th and registration, as well as more detailed information, can be found HERE!
There are a lot of changes on the horizon, y’all! As we prepare to return to intergenerational services for the summer, and envision our return to the classroom wing in the fall, lots of decisions need to be made, and that means I want to hear from YOU about what has been working and what hasn’t, and what your dreams and concerns are for the return to normal Sunday morning RE, AND I want to answer your questions about our plans for room use, curriculum, and the general wellbeing of your children when they are in our care.
You are invited to bring your drinks and snacks to the benches on the back patio on Sunday, May 25th to spend coffee hour asking and sharing for the mutual benefit of all who are invested in our RE programs for children and youth. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas!
Last month was loaded with fun! Our youth went to the Hult Center to experience Hamilton live on stage and their excitement was absolutely contagious! And between our JETPIG Easter and Beltane Maypole, I can honestly say we made the most of the beautiful spring sunshine and blossoms! If you have ideas for enriching activities you’d like to see take place over the summer, I want to hear them!
Everything we are able to provide in RE is only possible because volunteers generously give their time to bring these events to life for others! Our values-driven Easter experience would not have been possible without the help of Priscilla Galasso, Anya Ballinger, and Adriel Molk, all committing to help out in the weeks leading up to the event. And then, on the day-of, our fabulous young people, Sabina Giordono and Kezi Hirsch, stepped in to fill a need to talk to kids about justice and Love.
Thank you to all of our volunteers who fill roles big and small. You are the beating heart of Fellowship life!
Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Fellowship librarians, Holley Lantz and Christine Robbins, and volunteer Eric Lantz, the children’s collection in the Rita McDonald Memorial Library has been digitally cataloged and is ready for check outs!
Children (and adults who read children’s books) can now apply for a library card with this form, and use our new digital checkout kiosk. Please allow 3 days for new accounts to be set up prior to attempting to check out.
We have many faith-specific adult books that cannot be found at the county library and we’d love to see more people making use of this resource. Feedback about the usability of the adult collection is most welcome!
Thanks so much for being part of what makes our Fellowship shine! Happy May, Y’all!
Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the proposed changes to Article II of our Bylaws! We have incorporated the feedback into the proposed change, which is included below. This proposed change to the Bylaws will be voted on by members at the Annual Meeting on May 18, 2025. A bylaw change such as this requires a 3/4 majority vote of the members in attendance at the meeting.
Existing Article II Membership: The Fellowship offers membership to all people who support its purposes, principles, and programs.
Proposed Article II Membership: The Fellowship offers membership to all people who support its values, principles, mission, and programs.
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis is committed to establishing, supporting, and maintaining a welcoming congregation that lives up to its highest ideals, a place where all can thrive. We strive to be a congregation that affirms all persons, including but not limited to those embracing differences in racial and cultural identity or background, sexual orientation, gender and its expression, religious background, marital status, family structure, age, mental and physical health and ability, political affiliation, educational achievement, and socioeconomic level. We welcome all who accept our Congregational Covenant of Right Relations to share in the leadership, ministry, fellowship, worship, responsibilities, blessings, and joys of our congregation’s life.
Try, once again, to let everything you do be done in love.
I am inspired by these words Rev. Jill uses to close our Sunday service. What would it be like to live this way? Sometimes I speak or act out of love, and that feels like happiness. But not everything I do or say comes from love, and when an alternative motivation (like ego, obligation, guilt, anger, etc etc) takes over, the results are often not so good.
How can we move closer to this lovely ideal? Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chodron has a masterful way of explaining Buddhist wisdom in an accessible and compelling way. After reading “When Things Fall Apart” I was intrigued by the idea that in our incessant quest to avoid suffering, we often make a mess of things and cause a lot of suffering for ourselves and others. When I attended a weekend retreat with Pema and learned to meditate, I learned that it is possible to train in loving kindness. Meditation allowed me to take these ideas to heart and start to apply them to actual situations. I then gained a new level of appreciation of the power of Buddhist wisdom.
I’m planning a study group to read and discuss “Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World”. Here’s a blurb from the cover: In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, Pema Chodron offers fresh wisdom, heartfelt reflections and the signature humor and insight that have made her a beloved guide in turbulent times. In an increasingly polarized world, Pema offers us tools to find common ground, even when we disagree, so we can build a stronger and broader sense of community. Sharing never-before-told personal stories from her remarkable life, simple and powerful everyday practices, and directly relatable advice, Pema leads the way in showing us how to become triumphant bodhisattvas- compassionate beings- in even the most difficult of circumstances.
Well, reading and understanding is one thing. But taking the advice to heart and trying it out in our everyday encounters is what I’m hoping to achieve in this Adult RE offering. We will read, we will discuss, we will do guided meditations, and we will try out these ideas in real life.
This year’s adult religious exploration programs are centered on our congregational theme of the year: Ancestors, Descendants, and Us.
We will deepen our understanding of our UU religious ancestry, practice articulating our own religious beliefs and spiritual impulses, and explore ways to improve our relationships with ourselves and our fellow travelers in this river of life.
We very much appreciate you taking the time to pre-register so that we can arrive well-prepared to provide you with the best RE experience possible.
If you have a special interest and would like to facilitate an exploration opportunity for adults, email Skyla King-Christison at dre@uucorvallis.org. Teh RE Council loves when our members help co-create the gatherings they would like to see, and I’m happy to support you in launching your RE-related ideas.
