PDF of Program

“The map is not the territory.”

The natural world into which we are born is as it is and ever was; mysterious and boundless. However, we understand, experience, and interact with the world through maps which we are given and maps which we create. We tend to live within the bounds of our maps while craving the experience of being without borders, of love beyond belief.

Presented by Gregg Dorris, PsyD

In her 2021 book Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred, Victoria Loorz “explores the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it.” This Sunday, we will gather outside the forested home of Dan Ball and Lori Golze to immerse ourselves in the wonders of the natural world. Following the practice of the “church of the wild,” we will spend some time in silent, solitary contemplation of nature and time in communal sharing. Come and experience this new and different way of “doing church.” 

This service will be in person only. Please bring a folding chair if you have one, comfortable walking shoes, and water. 

Dan and Lori’s place is located on a 10 acre, forested hillside, just above the flowing Neal Creek.  There are options to wander through the quiet woods, sit by the flowing water and listen to the forest, or sit in nearby, shady grassy areas.  Dan and Lori live at 2717 Swyers Drive in Hood River.  Call Dan at 541-969-8873 if you need directions.  There is some parking near the house, or you can park on Swyers Drive next to the orchard, and hoof it up the driveway to their back yard where the service begins. There will also be parking help.

Join us for the UUA General Assembly Sunday Morning Worship with Rev. Jen Youngsun Ryn. We’ll be joining with thousands of other Unitarian Universalists from around the country as we gather in the Grange to watch a recording of this very special service. You can expect great music, inspiring words, and some chills down your spine as we experience some of the best worship that our denomination has to offer. And we’ll even be setting up a breakfast bar upstairs so that we can nosh as we watch.

The service will be followed by our Annual Congregational Meeting at 12 pm.

Presented by Dan Ball with celebrant Rev. Barbara Prose
Music by Jasper Krehbiel

PDF of our Program

We take time once a year to give thanks and bless our companions in life—cats and dogs, birds and chickens, turtles and fish and so much more! This ceremony also acknowledges that our lives are made fuller and richer by the creatures that inhabit the Earth with us, not just those that live with us. In recognition of those critters special to you, bring them, a picture, or a memorabilia reminder with you to share at a blessing alter at our service at the Grange.

The Executive Director of the UU Animal Ministry, Rev. John Millspaugh, visited us a few years ago. Learn more about Rev. John here. He recommended that we honor the animals and have a dairy and meat free hospitality Sunday Service. Therefore, our Hospitality Team will have no flesh food or other animal products during our coffee time after this service.

This service will be followed by the Fellowship Town Hall at 12 pm. Members are encouraged to attend and bring your questions before the June 21 Annual General Meeting.

Featuring Rev. Barbara Prose

Celebrant Elaine Castles
Music by Bonnie and Dick Withers

Come at 9 am for All Ages Popup Choir!

Are you a Universalist? I haven’t heard too many of you claim a Universalist identity here in the Gorge. Perhaps because, as the saying goes, “If you are a Universalist, you better make friends with your enemies now, because you’re going to be spending eternity with them soon!” A theology of radical inclusion, Universalism has always been expressed and repressed in Christian circles since the beginning of Christianity.   

Whatever you think happens after you die, in a faith as free as ours, we each have a responsibility to articulate as best we can, what we hold as our highest values, and why. With the religious freedom we cherish comes the responsibility to study, debate, even argue, and then finally decide, define and declare where we stand.

My hunch, whether you were raised in a Christian tradition or not, is that we are all Universalists. See you on Sunday and let me know what you think!

With love beyond belief, Barbara

This is the second, in a four-part sermon series, in which we will explore the roots of our liberal religious tradition. We started in May with Humanism. Moving in June to Universalism.  Celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday by exploring Unitarianism in July and finish the series in August, with Unitarian Universalism.  There will be time for discussion afterwards, downstairs, as part of our Get To Know Us monthly gathering, happening every First and Third Sunday from 12-1 pm.

We will celebrate motherhood in all its forms, even as we tend to the pain we carry regarding our Mother Earth and sometimes our biological mothers. As the world evolves and becomes more diverse, the nature of motherhood has advanced with it. Yet some aspects remain constant. We will end with a Call To Action to claim our own liberation.

Sister Guadalupe Guajardo is a member of the Holy Names Sister Order, in Marylhurst, OR. Sister Guadalupe comes from a farm worker family in California. She holds a PhD in Organization Transformation in Learning & Change in Human Systems, specializing in Leadership Development. She’s a founder of Oregon LACE, or Latina Associates for Collaborative Engagement. She is devoted to her work and ministry healing & repairing the world.  In addition to doing humanitarian work on the U.S. Mexico border she also is committed to working in her own backyard,  including working with the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, which is how she met Barbara.

As the world changes, so has liberalism -- so must liberalism. What do mercy and justice mean for us now, and what real work is calling us?

Rev. Jill McAllister is the former minister of the UU Fellowship of Corvallis, having retired from UU ministry in August, 2025, after nearly 40 years. She continues to teach World Religions at Oregon State University, while navigating new landscapes - her own, and the world we live in.

Our featured speaker will be Gorge Fellowship member Tina Castañares. Tina will share some of her experiences as a “mixed ethnicity” person, and touch on the scientific fallacy of “race”; the wonderful demographic mixing in the Mid-Columbia and the future this predicts; and maybe even some etiquette about questions like “what ARE you?”.

Stay after for our Social Justice Circle.