WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS – text only
Sunday Services
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This Week:
October 5, 2025 – Learning to be a Neighbor in the Land of the People of the River
Dave Eckert of the Canoe Family Project and the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition will speak about his experience building relationships with landcestral cultures, and how that has helped him to better understand and act in ways that bridge cultural divides. Like many of us, Dave grapples with avoiding cultural appropriation and cultural guilt. UUFC has been able to contribute to the Canoe Project through our Justice Outreach Fund.
Services This Month
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October 5: Learning to be a Neighbor in the Land of the People of the River
Dave Eckert of the Canoe Family Project and the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition will speak about his experience building relationships with landcestral cultures, and how that has helped him to better understand and act in ways that bridge cultural divides. Like many of us, Dave grapples with avoiding cultural appropriation and cultural guilt. UUFC has been able to contribute to the Canoe Project through our Justice Outreach Fund.
Rev. Leslie Chartier will hold the worship space.
October 12: Joy as an Improbable Friend
In these political times, joy may seem an impossible thing. But world religions throughout time have named joy as a human experience that wells up again and again. Let us explore how to honor it.
Rev. Alex McGee will preach and the drop-in choir welcomes all.
October 19: Compassion as an Open Door
Anger and indignation may well up for us as we read the news. But spiritual teachers such as Howard Thurman have convincing arguments for why love is better for us and for everyone. Can we perhaps have compassion for our own anger?
Rev. Alex will preach and the choir will sing.
October 26: Wheel of the Year: Samhain/Halloween
Samhain shares the ancient spiritual practice of remembering and paying respects to the ancestors who have died.
Diana Titus will coordinate this service and the band will play.
From the Minister
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October 5, 2025
Dear Fellowship:
This week I wish you the peace of a pause to enjoy the beautiful images, music, and message in this video. There is a love holding you. Rest in that love.
With care,
Rev. Alex
This Week at UUFC
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UUFC Women’s Retreat 2025 – deadline to register is 10/5
Please register by Oct. 5 for the Women’s Retreat –
“Right Here, Right Now: Peace through Practice” – We will share practices that may help you find peace in your center, peace in your connections, and peace in your community. At this time, Peace through Protest is a way to be in balance, even if we’re wobbly.The Women’s Retreat will be held at the UUFC on Friday night Oct. 17 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm and from 9:00 am – 7:00 pm on Saturday, Oct. 18. On Saturday, lunch will be served at noon, and there will be program options that include participating at the No Kings protest at the county courthouse. The $55 fee for the retreat includes two meals on Saturday catered by Forks and Corks.
Please register using this form. https://uufc.breezechms.com/form/wr2025.
Payment can be made online or by check to the UUFC with “Women’s Retreat” in the memo line.
Volunteers, suggestions, and questions are welcome at womensretreat@uucorvallis.org. -
LEGATO potluck, 10/8
Everyone is welcome to join the choir and band for a meal of laughter, goodwill and perhaps song! The Fall weather beckons a warm, cozy meal shared with others. The LEGATO potluck is Wednesday, October 8 at 6:30 PM. Come early if you can help set up tables. This is followed by rehearsal at 7:00 PM.
Bring a dish to share (please identify all ingredients), a serving utensil (if needed) AND YOUR OWN PLACE SETTING & WATER BOTTLE – this is a low-impact meal.
This is a Connect Up Event with the purpose of building community within the UUFC congregation.
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Kirtan with Gina Sala and Friends, 10/10
Featuring Jeanette Kangas (tabla), Johanna Beekman (vox), David Campbell (trumpet) & friends.
Come feel your mind, body and heart relax and reconnect Friday, October 10, 7-8:30 PM in the UUFC’s Sanctuary as we immerse in world chants, meditative manra, groove and story with life-long chanter and long-term teacher and sound yogni Gina Salā and her wonderful band.
Let’s raise the vibration!
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Mantra/Raga/Voice Workshop with Gina Sala, 10/11
Come rest in loving vibrations and learn useful tools in voice, chant, refined mantra, raga and breath that will leave us feeling refreshed, renewed, grateful and filled within. We’ll be meeting in Room 7, 10 AM – 1 PM.
Find Balance, Peace and Joy in Chant and Sacred Sound.
https://GinaSalaCorvallisKirtanandWorkshop.eventbrite.com -
Democracy Action Team, Tuesdays & Thursdays
The DAT is proud to announce that letter writing is officially back! Join us in person on Tuesdays (in the UUFC library) and on Zoom (link HERE) on Thursdays – both at 5:30 pm. We’ll write to voters in Pennsylvania asking them to retain State Supreme Justices who oppose partisan gerrymandering and to Virginia to inform voters of issues that will help them understand the choices they face in the upcoming state election. We will also write to our legislators. We’ll have addresses and supplies on Tuesdays.
Contact Claire M. for information.
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Join Rep. Val Hoyle’s Town Hall by Zoom, 10/7
The Democracy Action Team will be watching the town hall with Rep. Hoyle at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, October 7 in the UUFC Library. The town hall will be followed by the regularly-scheduled Speaking of Democracy discussion at 6:30 PM, which will be about Digital Safety.
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Information Session on Being a Sunday Service Reader, 10/11
Have you ever felt a calling to serve as a reader during Sunday Service? Please come learn more about this opportunity, October 11, Saturday, at 9:30 – 11 AM in the Sanctuary! You will have a chance to read from the pulpit and see how it feels. After attending this info session, any participant can let Rev. Alex know that they would like to be on a roster of readers to be asked to read in worship.
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Elders Thriving in Community, 10/8
Listen to a panel of UUFC members hosted by the Elders Thriving in Community team on Wednesday, October 8 at 3 PM in the Sanctuary. Saying YES to Life even when it’s hard: a panel of older UUFC members will share their perspectives on staying engaged and connected, thriving & finding joy, throughout life’s changes & challenges.
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Speaking of Democracy Online Discussion Series (Sept 16 – Oct 21)
The Statewide UU Advocacy organization, Oregon UU Voices for Justice is sponsoring weekly online gatherings for UUs to meet to share and learn about actions that each of us can take to save our Democracy. Beginning Sept. 16, we will gather on zoom each week on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM. There will be time to acknowledge what we are experiencing in the moment and also to get resources and information about topics concerning our current moment of democratic backsliding.
Email Robin Lancaster for the link or join the Democracy Action Team in person for a watch party in the Fellowship Library. We will continue to learn and listen about how our Fellow UU Congregations are responding to this difficult moment in American civic life.
Sept. 16 The UUA Action of Immediate Witness: Faithful Defiance of Authoritarianism
Sept. 23 Characteristics of Successful Pro-Democracy Movements
Sept. 30 Boycotts and Economic resistance
Oct 7 Digital Safety
Oct. 14 Mis and Dis information
Oct. 21 Advocacy
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Celebrating the Wonders of Faith, 10/5
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the Corvallis Interfaith Network and the Interfaith Kirtan Band are hosting the event “Celebrating the Wonders of Faith” on Sunday, October 5 at 3 PM in the Sanctuary and Social Hall. We invite members of any religious affiliation, faith community, or spiritual path to join us. We welcome members who are non-affiliated spirit seekers as well. Each presenter is encouraged to share their individual ways of living their spiritual lives, not in an attempt to convert another, but as a way to seek the universal truths alive in all people.
Please join us for an evening with members from many faiths as they share their music and wisdom!
Enter with an open mind, listening ears and a gracious heart — leave in faith, trust and LOVE.
Strengthening UNITY
In our CommUNITY!
Announcements
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Last Chance for Chalice Circle Popups!
There are two more chances for participating in a Chalice Circle experience this October: on Thursday, October 9 and/or Sunday, October 12. Signups are online via this Google Form (https://bit.ly/fall25chalice)
Want to find out more about chalice circles? Attend the next Inquirers Series featuring them on October 5, or read the FAQ at: https://uucorvallis.org/chalice-circles/.
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How to donate to the monthly Outreach Offering
Each month, the Fellowship gathers donations for a certain charitable cause. These are our Outreach Offerings. You can contribute to this month’s offering in a few ways:
- Give to the Sunday collection plate
- Donate online
- Donate to the refreshments during the social hour
The Social Concerns team donate an assortment of sweet and savory refreshments, including gluten-free and vegan choices, for our enjoyment at the social hour following Sunday worship. These items are purchased and prepared by the team to encourage donations to the Outreach Offering. Collection baskets are always found at the end of the refreshments table. The next time you’re eyeing something tasty on the table, consider putting a donation in the basket first to show how much you appreciate having that treat ready and waiting for you!
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Teams & Councils Trick or Treat Resource Fair (register by 10/15)
“By their groups shall ye know them.” ~James Luther Adams
Let your group be known! It’s time to get registered for the 5th Annual Teams and Councils Trick or Treat event!
WHO: All UUFC teams, groups, and councils are invited to represent!
WHEN: October 26th, after the service
WHERE: Social hall, porch, and patio (under the market tents!)
DEADLINE to REGISTER: October 15th (earlier is helpful to our planning team!)
This event was born out of the RE Council’s understanding that we can only nurture a next generation of UUs when newcomers and whole families feel integrated into our wider Fellowship community enough to stay and take root here. Often, the missing first piece is simply knowing what’s available and how to join in.
Your participation in this event meets a 2-fold need by creating a joyful and lighthearted Fellowship experience in a time when our emotional and spiritual resources are feeling particularly taxed AND you are helping folx understand who we are and how they can expand their engagement with Fellowship life when they’re ready.
This isn’t just fun! It’s the sacred work of community building and memory making.
To participate, you must:
- Register by October 15th
- Have volunteers to work your table (costumes highly encouraged!)
- Have signage to demonstrate what your team does and works on (photographs highly encouraged!)
- Have individually wrapped treats to pass out
We would LOVE but don’t require participating teams to:
- Have table decorations
- Have a game or activity to generate engagement
- Have a sign-up sheet for those who would like to volunteer or be added to your group’s mailing list (please only take this step if your team has the capacity to follow up with those who sign up for more information)
If you have any questions, please reach out to Skyla for help. We would love to see every group, team, and council join in the fun!
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RE Newsletter for October
“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” ― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments
Greetings, Families!
The soggy, foggy season of all things cozy is finally upon us! Between sipping soup and reading Pumpkinheads to the kids, please take a moment to catch up on your Religious Exploration news and add some events to your calendar.
Please note that this is the last month that this newsletter will be sent to last year’s registered families. If you are not sure whether you have registered your child for this new year in RE, please reach out to me, and I’ll help get you all squared away so that you don’t miss any of the fun!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
10/12 Monthly Family Breakfast is Back! register HERE
10/16 Parent Peer Support Group is Back! Register HERE
10/25 Youth Overnight: registration information was sent home and to parents’ inboxes.
10/26 Teams and Councils Trick or Treat (wear your costumes to service!)
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.
You want to know what’s going on at the Fellowship and what different groups there are to be a part of. Your kids want to have some fun and wear their costumes. Okay, let’s face it. You want to have fun too! That’s why we’re hosting the annual Teams and Councils Trick-or-Treat event after the service on October 26th.
Wear your costumes to the service and plan to hang out after to wander around and check out the information, goodies, and games presented by many of the wonderful groups, teams, and councils that keep us up to good trouble at the Fellowship and beyond!
Registered OMG! youth and their friends are invited to this year’s Fall Overnight at UUFC! As always, we’ve invited youth from Eugene, Salem, and Willamette Falls congregations to join us, but it’s still unknown as to whether they have enough volunteer support to get their youth here this year.
Please ASAP, but no later than October 8th. Registration information went home with youth and was included in the email version of this newsletter. If you have not received it and are interested in registering yout youth please reach out to Skyla at dre@uucorvallis.org.
We will have a pizza dinner, and social hour, followed by a trip to the Melon Patch corn maze, and then come warm up with a candelight worship before bed. More details can be found in the Registration link!
By request, we took September off of our regular family gatherings, but it’s time to get back into the swing of things with the return of the Family Breakfast and the Parent Peer Support Group.
The Breakfast will be sticking with its 2nd Sunday Schedule this year, so please come join us on the 12th at 8:45. Registering each month helps us plan, but please come even if you forget to register.
The Parent Peer Support Group (with free childcare!) will start on the 3rd Thursday in October, and will be on 2nd Thursdays beginning in November. You don’t want to miss this first session back on October 16th! Register anew with this link to be kept up to date on changes regarding this group.
All of our Sunday morning groups for school-aged children are using the Mosaic antiracism curriculum this year. One of the upcoming lessons involves the use of candy. Because we don’t generally hand out candy in RE, I want to give our parents a heads up and a chance to share their family norms and concerns around sweets so that we can make sure all children are included and their dietary preferences are honored. These lessons will be taking place in Spirit Play on October 19th and in the Seeker Space on November 9th.
Kids will sanitize their hands and then sort and handle various candies throughout the lesson. Each child will be invited to taste 2 pieces of candy during class time, and the rest will be divvied up and sent home with consenting parents at pickup. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to me!
I’m so pleased to share that a new RE team has formed with the focus on safety! Below is a copy of what they shared in the monthly journal. Because there is information specifically for parents, I want to make sure you have a chance to encounter it, even if you aren’t in the habit of reading the journal.
We are fortunate to have a growing Religious Exploration program here at UUFC! To support this program, we have formed a Safe Congregations Support Team made up of parents and other members of our fellowship. Its purpose is to bolster the safety of all who engage with Religious Exploration programs by partnering with the Director of Religious Exploration to support uniform policy and procedure implementation and execution, consult on ambiguous background check results or interpersonal conflicts that have the potential to disrupt RE community-building efforts, and lovingly invite RE volunteers and participants back into covenant when our safety policies and procedures have been violated.
As part of our role of fostering the safest environment possible for our UUFC families, we would like to remind parents and guardians that RE staff and volunteers do not supervise children during the coffee hour after the service or at any time they are not engaged directly in RE programs. Please stay mindful of your children’s whereabouts and safety during social gatherings and bear in mind that, as an inclusive community that values transformation, we welcome strangers and individuals with diverse histories into our midst.
If you have a concern that needs to be addressed by our team, please contact Kyle Cupp, chairperson of the RE Safe Congregations Support team. Additionally, if you are passionate about safety and have skills and time to share, we’d love to hear from you!
If you have any unmet needs for support, unanswered questions about how or why we do what we do in RE, please reach out any time! Our offerings exist because families share their dreams and needs, and we rely on your partnership!
May we hold Love at the center of all we do together in this new RE and beyond!
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Outreach Offerings for October
Our Outreach offerings in October support South Corvallis Food Bank, which is a shopping-style food pantry offering a 5-day supply of food to households every other week. Partnered with Linn-Benton Food Share & Oregon Food Bank, the Food Bank strives to increase food-security in our community through compassionate care.
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Join the Choir
The UUFC Choir meets every Wednesday at 7:00 PM in the Sanctuary and is open to anyone – whether you have musical experience or not. There is no audition.
We sing a variety of pieces – each with unique style, instrumentation, and cultural significance – which allows for diverse musical exploration and personal expression.
The Choir is a great way to be of service to our Fellowship community…. and it’s FUN! Contact Choir Director Steven Evans-Renteria for more information.
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Join the Signs of Solidarity team
Members of the Democracy Action Team are collaborating with Benton County Indivisible and Standing Up for Racial Justice to place signs of solidarity supporting immigrants around Corvallis. If you would like to join this effort, contact Karen J. Or you can print out your own copies of the posters and take them to local businesses! You can find the digital poster files here: https://brandfolder.com/indivisibleproject/signs-of-solidarity.
Plan Ahead
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UUFC Harvest Festival, 10/12
Come and get your pumpkins, preserves, and tie dyed T-shirts, all while supporting the Perla family and the Stamp Fund for the Democracy Action Team. The festival will be in the Fellowship parking lot after the worship service on Sunday, October 12.
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No Kings Protest, 10/18
Join us on Saturday, October 18 at 12 PM at the Benton County Courthouse for the No Kings protest!
A little worried about recent developments? What we know is that the only way out of this slide to dictatorship is for everyone to get involved. THAT is what has stopped a tyrant. And only that. No one else is going to save us, as much as we watch and hope things will change. So WE must make the 18th the largest protest ever on the planet. So each ONE bring ONE (or ten) to the October 18th protest.
For more information and resources, visit https://www.nokings.org/.