365 Days of Love: Resources you can use all year long!

Thanks for checking out these resources from past Thirty Days of Love that you can use all year round! This year, we are excited to support thirty days of action on climate justice from World Water Day (March 22) to Earth Day (April 22).

Many of our UU partners are collaborating on this exciting new venture, so check out Commit2Respond to learn more about how you can get involved. Resources will be available in early 2015, so be sure to check back with Commit2Respond then to learn more!

We have also curated resources from our many partners who collaborated with us over the past three years to create Thirty Days of Love that ran approximately from MLK Day to SSL Day. See below for fantastic worship service ideas, religious exploration, themes to use for congregations, and so so much more. While this year will be different, we are excited by what is to come, and we hope you join us on this next part of our shared journey!

 Share the Love Sunday

Click here for our updated Share the Love Sunday resources

We are really excited to have a renewed emphasis on this, our SIXTH year of Re-Imagining Valentines Day! There is much you can do this year on Love Sunday, including have a love themed worship, giving out a Courageous Love Award to congregants or justice partners, and lifting up the important social justice work of your congregation.

And last but certainly not least consider taking up a collection to support Standing on the Side of Love! You might even want to have a shared plate collection and give a portion of the donations raised to a local community organization whose values match ours, while also giving back to SSL to sustain this work for years to come.

Click here for resources and tips on how to receive an offering at your congregation.

Themes

Below are some of the themes from the past Thirty Days of Love campaigns. Please feel free to incorporate any of the resources below as you see fit.

Multicultural Ministries and Justice

 MLK Day: Fifty Years after Selma/Civil Rights

Each year, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day provides us with an opportunity to reflect, learn and act around pressing social justice issues calling our hearts. As we celebrate a number of civil rights anniversaries and continue to support organizing happening in Ferguson and beyond, how can we approach MLK Day in new ways?  What can you do to look at the MLK Day Holiday in a new light this year? Share with others on twitter using the #UUsLivingtheDream hashtag!

  • Dr. Martin Luther King was the UUA General Assembly Ware Lecturer in 1966. Read his always stirring words here.
  • Connect with the growing movement for racial justice and an end to mass incarceration: see www.uua.org/thenewjimcrow for resources, partners, sermons, and more.
  • Find UUs Resisting New Jim Crow & Mass Incarceration on Facebook, a learning community for building the movement.
  • Check out the UUA’s new opportunities for youth to engage with multiculturalism and racial justice analysis-building. The Be The Change! Project includes an interactive, multimedia six-session training and related resources for entry-level discussions around race in our faith and our communities.

Building Bridges of Love

These resources offer us a chance for us to reach out past walls, barriers, or borders and engage in places we don’t usually go. By Building Bridges of Love, we can encourage ourselves and others to practice radical love and inclusion. Consider putting together service projects, interfaith exchanges, and community dinners.

Think Interfaith

The first step in building interfaith social justice partnerships (or strengthening old ones!) is meeting and getting to know our neighbors. Find time to go to a religious service of a different faith in your community–-whether it’s a mosque, synagogue, Episcopal Church, Buddhist temple, Quaker Meeting, or even a local meditation group. Learn more about their faith tradition and build new relationships!

Courageous Love Awards

The Courageous Love Award is for individuals or organizations that have exhibited courageous love and touched hearts. Presenting a Courageous Love Award is an opportunity to reach beyond your core social justice folks, and to engage your whole congregation or community in social justice work. It is also a chance to uplift others; strengthen and support partnerships you are already developing; and to join together with joy and with purpose those who have shared values.

Campus/Young Adult Resources

There are tons of great resources available in this Campus and Young Adult guide. Feel free to adapt as you see fit, and share with us if you create something that others can use!

Side With LoveRacial Justice, LGBTQ Equity, Commit2Respond, Immigrant Justice, Interfaith, Climate Justice