Save the Date for 30 Days of Love! Plus, new resources and events!
Save the date for 30 Days of Love 2024: January 15 - February 14, 2024
This annual event offers a month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice.
Each week, you can expect to receive several different kinds of offerings, each from a different voice within Unitarian Universalism. Within each weekly theme, which will connect with one of our intersectional justice priorities, we plan to offer prayers, blessings, grounding, and meditative practices, a story or time for all ages, as well as a reflection from one of Side With Love's program and field staff.
To get an idea of what to expect or to enjoy some meditative breaks during your lunch this month, see last year's offerings at sidewithlove.org/30daysoflove2023.
Register Now: Digital Security 101 for Congregational Teams - Virtual Training
Increasingly, our congregations are finding themselves the targets of online harassment, phishing, doxxing, and other forms of digital hate – often as a result of the ways we are embodying UU values in the world.
Unfortunately, many of our UU communities do not have the skills and the infrastructure to protect themselves from malicious digital targeting that is constantly evolving.
Equality Labs' Digital Security For All Workshop is a dive into the world of digital security and what that means for you and your organization. We will develop some common ground and shed light on types of attacks and security concerns that affect our communities, engaging with you at a strategic level as you plan for your organization.
We cover everyday, practical steps to mitigate online harassment, fraud, and other forms of cyber attacks. We look at how the data broker ecosystem, coupled with open-source intelligence (OSINT) from social media, increases security risks to individuals and organizations. We then look at key preventative measures including data broker scrubbing, phishing awareness, multi-factor authentication, password management, VPN, and other tools that can be immediately applied in anyone's daily lives.
Open to all congregational leaders but especially targeted to those who manage secure information such as congregational websites, social media accounts, databases, and communications.
Cost: $100 for congregational team of up to 5 attendees for both sessions. This cost is highly subsidized so we can bring this impactful training to our congregations. Register your team of up to 5 attendees at bit.ly/DigitalSecurityForCongregations.
Session 1: Monday, January 22, 2024
Session 2: Monday, February 5, 2024
4:30pm PT - 6:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET - 9:30pm ET
Available Now
Why We Cannot Turn Away: Resources for UUs Engaging Palestine & Israel
Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association and hosted by Muslim and Jewish UU professionals, this session features experts sharing about UU engagement on these issues over the past 40 years, reflecting on the many-layered history of the region, exploring the complexities of Islamophobia and antisemitism, and faithful responses to the ongoing violence. View the webinar, resource guide, and template for congregational conversations.
Skill Up Recording and Resources: Faith Out Loud
UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt invites us to remember "what symbols, messages, principles, or experiences are most central to [our] deep understanding of Unitarian Universalism.” During this Skill Up, we took time to discuss and practice articulating our theologies of justice-making with faith-centric language that can be used in outreach, public statements, petitions, letters, and more. View the training.
Recording & Resources: Creating Hubs of Climate Resilience
How can we think more expansively about transforming our buildings and grounds into hubs of climate resilience? As we center our thinking around clean energy as a human right, we shift the idea of it from a technical solution for only some to a moral imperative for all. Most importantly, we can use practical building improvements as tools for community support and justice. View the training.
December Events & Gatherings
December 6: Green Sanctuary 2030 Orientation
7pm ET / 4pm PT
Get to know the new Green Sanctuary Program!
Join the monthly orientation session to get a better understanding of the program and learn how your congregation can engage in ongoing climate action.
Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice can transform your congregation through climate justice! Register to join.
December 20: Winter Solstice Celebration: Light For all
7pm ET / 4pm PT
The Winter Solstice occurs when Earth's axis tilts away from the sun, making it the shortest day and longest night of the year for those living in the Northern Hemisphere. Join UU Ministry for Earth and other UU partners to honor this time of year, our connection to the natural world, and to remember that light does come after the darkness. Register to join.
December 8: UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary+ Pastoral Small Group
8pm ET / 5pm PT
This is a space to share the hard stuff and to hold the hard stuff that others are navigating in their lives. During our time together, our lead chaplain/facilitators will share opening and closing words, and in between, there is time for everyone to share what's on their hearts, and receive what others are sharing about their own lives. It's a supportive, judgment-free place to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ people. Register to join.
December 26: UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary+ Monthly Gathering
8pm ET / 5pm PT
Join the UPLIFT monthly gatherings for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism. Join us to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ UUs and co-create support and community across our faith.
This is a drop-in space, where folks can come and go as works best for them, and where people can join us at any time. You can be a regular or someone new, someone who's been curious for a while but hasn't yet checked us out, somebody who is rejoining after time away, and all other ways of relating to this space! You are welcome here, and you are loved. Register to join.
December 11: Monthly Mixer
8pm ET / 5pm PT
We know that these times ask a lot of us and that we need one another to stay in the work with hope, joy, impact, and accountability. Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love. Come connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff. Register to join.
December 28: Faithful Grounding
7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT
Join our Side with Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad for an hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding with others organizing on the side of love. Come drink in the music, meditation, play, and prayer. We end with a Connection Cafe for those who wish to talk together. Show up as you are, whatever is in your heart, and with your camera on or off as you need. Register to join.