30 Days of Love is over. Now what?

Our annual celebration known as 30 Days of Love has finished. This beloved tradition, which runs approximately from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January through Valentine’s Day in February, is an opportunity for us to collectively nurture our spirits, deepen our understanding of our shared faith, and take action on our values for collective liberation.

 Whether you joined in every event or haven’t heard of 30 Days of Love yet, we want to lift up some of the amazing gifts generated by our contributors and invite you to continue bringing love and justice to our world. The materials are free for your continued use, individually or in your congregations, and we invite you to share them widely in your community.

 While each of these weeks was thematic, we hope you saw how much overlap there was -- that each of these issues is deeply connected. Far from competing with each other, these four intersectional justice priorities that guide the UUA and Side With Love’s work are inextricably intertwined. When we deepen our analysis, build our skills, and nurture robust movements for justice in one “issue area,” we inevitably find ourselves working toward a shared vision of liberation with an ever-expanding circle of comrades in the struggle. 

Spiritual Sustenance

 Over the last five years, Side With Love has increasingly focused on offering events, resources, and recommendations to nurture joy, comfort, and relief to all of us who are fatigued by a world that can be hard, hurtful, and scary. What we call ‘spiritual sustenance’ is a range of offerings that we believe will feed your soul and hopefully replenish you when you are flagging. For 30 Days of Love 2022, our minister-in-residence Rev. Ali K.C. Bell curated weekly chalice lightings and meditations. These brief offerings, under 10 minutes, are original creations. Bookmark them for when you need a moment of respite or to share in an upcoming worship service or small group gathering. Explore our spiritual sustenance offerings.

 Political Education

 Each week of 30 Days of Love was dedicated to one of our intersectional justice priorities, and we invited organizers and thinkers who are leading in these areas to help ground us in why we need to do this work now. These sessions have been recorded and are available to view so individuals and congregations can anchor themselves in our prophetic justice-making moving forward. Explore our political education offerings.

 Multigenerational Playlists

 In addition to our political education webinars, we created ‘playlists’ around each week’s theme with shorter offerings for families to use together. The offerings range from music, read-alongs, poems, podcast episodes, and more, all oriented around a shared learning experience for people of all ages. Listen with your kids during a car-ride or watch a read-along before bed, and talk about our shared values of love over fear. Explore our multigenerational playlists.

 Side With Love Sunday Worship

 This year’s Side With Love Sunday Worship is called “What If I Only Had 30 Days to Love?”. It is available as a single video of the entire service or as discrete videos of each of the respective elements. If you haven’t yet planned your Side With Love Sunday, these resources are our gift to you and will remain available for use by congregations for free throughout the year. View our Side With Love Sunday Worship.

 So What’s Next?

 In this time that is full of tensions, stress, and competing demands, Side With Love is focused on identifying the campaigns and events in which we, as people of faith and conscience, can make an impact. As always, you can find ways to deepen your skills, connect with others, and take concrete action for justice through the Side With Love Action Center. These activities are updated regularly and are appropriate for individuals and congregational teams. 

 On March 30, join the UUA Commission on Social Witness for their Spring Social Witness Convening to organize, collaborate, and find support for your congregation's work on recent social justice statements as well as plan for justice-making in 2022.

 We also want to lift up the upcoming season of climate justice activism and organizing, Spring For Change 2022! We’re joining with UUMFE to offer this series of gatherings and actions to educate, inspire, and nurture connections, running March through May. Learn more and register at www.uumfe.org/resources/spring-for-change-2022.

We're grateful to be doing this work for shared liberation with you, and we're excited for what good we can do together this year.