‘Sanctuary’ is a word that many faith communities are engaging heavily with since Election Day. This word means many things to many different people. For some, it is about making sanctuary in our places of worship. For some it refers to policies that create sanctuary for undocumented people in cities and towns. For others, it signifies the kind of organizing communities are taking on to protect and defend Muslim communities, undocumented communities, LGBTQ communities, and Black Lives Matter activists who are being targeted by Trump’s administration. However, we are defining the word - we all have questions. The questions are basically stemming from a place of love, as we try to concern how we can show up for ourselves, our families, our neighborhoods and communities as specific communities are targeted for attack, violence, and removal.
Rituals of Sustenance
Welcome to week four of Thirty Days of Love 2017. We hope you find these resources and reflections of use to the work you do from your congregation to your community and beyond.
Click here for the downloadable companion worksheet on sustenance and movements. It provides both spiritual reminders as well as a number rituals and practices to sustain you and yours for the work ahead. These activities were first published in our Fortify The Movement Chapbook as part of last Fall’s #ReviveLove Tour. Once you’ve done that, consider checking out a video from our Organizing on the Side of Love online course on life cycles of movements you can find here.
Spiritual Solace
This Sunday, February 5th, we will come together, in our homes to have blessings and prayers laid upon us by spirit and faith leaders from communities targeted in this moment, but leading in resistance and protection.
Join us this at 3pm ET/Noon PT with Mijente, the Movement for Black Lives, MPower and Southerners On New Ground (SONG) to receive an hour of online blessings and prayers to fortify us and ours in these times.
Find more information and share it on social media here
On Transformation and Movements
Welcome to week three of Thirty Days of Love 2017. We hope you find these resources and reflections of use to the work you do from your congregation to your community and beyond.
Click here for the downloadable companion worksheet on transformation and movements. Once you’ve done that, consider checking out a video from our Organizing on the Side of Love online course on spirituality and sustainability you can find here. Lastly, in case you missed it check out the Thirty Days of Love 2017: All Ages Activity Calendar by Rev. Marisol Caballero.
Last week we wrote a message about covenant, about how covenant is not easy. This week we are writing about transformation.
The simplest news about transformation seems self-explanatory, but it is the part that we often understand 'rationally' but cannot absorb. It is this: when we transform, we are not who we were before. We have to let go of who that person was, how we move in the world, how we respond to what we encounter. It is indeed an iterative, ongoing process.
Community is where covenant matters
Welcome to week two of Thirty Days of Love 2017. We hope you find these resources and reflections of use to the work you do from your congregation to your community and beyond.
Click here for the downloadable companion worksheet on covenants and movements. Once you’ve done that, consider checking out a video from our Organizing on the Side of Love online course on spirituality and sustainability you can find here. Lastly, in case you missed it check out the Thirty Days of Love 2017: All Ages Activity Calendar by Rev. Marisol Caballero. Next week we’ll be back with our third message on transformation and movements.
The thing about covenants is that we don't enter into them because they are easy. One way we know we have entered a covenant is that it is a promise made in a sacred way, and that it is not always easy to keep. In the time we live in, the things we promise in a sacred way will not invite simple answers or solutions.
We all have different experiences with giving our word. We have different experiences keeping our word. Giving our word to each other, and keeping our word, matters a lot right now.
Courageous Love: Relationships and Movements
Welcome to Thirty Days of Love 2017. Over the next four weeks, we will be sharing a weekly message alongside a companion worksheet and short video. We hope you find these resources and reflections of use to the work you do from your congregation to your community and beyond.
Click here for the downloadable companion worksheet on relationships and movements. Once you’ve done that, consider checking out a video from our Organizing on the Side of Love online course. Click here to watch Caitlin’s module on community organizing and movement building you may find of use in your work. Lastly, check out the Thirty Days of Love 2017: All Ages Activity Calendar by Rev. Marisol Caballero. Next week we’ll be back with our second message on covenants and movements. Stay tuned!
Week one is dedicated to exploring relationships - those we have with ourselves, between people and between groups and organizations. I understand these bonds as the primary building blocks that create and sustain movements. Groups, campaigns and movements often fall apart because we do not know how to be in relationship with each other. The work of social transformation requires not only a rigor of politic but also a rigor of discernment – recognizing the real human needs we each have to be our best selves. Our relationships require many things from each of us - rooted in self reflection as a necessary first step to building authentic, long-term relationships. One of the attributes this moment is calling so many of us into is a deeper and wider understanding of courage.
Showing up for the work ahead
This winter, UUs across the country will gather and take action around 30 Days of Love.
Over the past two months, we have been hearing more and more from folks across the country about the real interest and commitment to scaling up our skills - how we can clarify our own political mandates, how we can be more impactful in our organizing, how people of faith can support and flank social movements in these times, and how we will sustain ourselves and each other for the long haul. Next week, we’ll begin 30 Days of Love with weekly messages to inform and support your work.
A week from now, we know many UUs will gather in their communities, at state capitals and in Washington DC in resistance and solidarity. We are excited to bring you two conversations to ground and inform your engagement and organizing in these times.
Fortification Episode 10: Malachi Garza
Happy New Year. We hope you and yours are taking care in these times. As we connect, build and grow with old comrades and as we create new formations to move our work forward, may we be emboldened by our collective political mandates - informed by relationships, strategy and transformation. We're excited to bring you our tenth episode of Fortification - our final episode in this series of podcasts - a conversation about love, leadership and the spiritual challenges of our times.
Fasting on the Side of Love
If we are to be strong in these difficult days, we need to do three things: Deepen our spiritual practices, take concrete strategic actions, and stay united with beloved communities of resistance. I’m inviting you to join me next week for a campaign which accomplishes all three of these tasks.
I’m joining the #Fast4Power from January 14th-January 20th and inviting the Standing on the Side of Love community to join me. This fast, initiated by the We Say Enough Campaign, is intended to fortify our spirits, strengthen our resolve, and prepare our minds, bodies and souls for the work ahead. People of faith from many traditions and people of conscience will fast and gather together in a spirit of collective resistance and determination. Will you join us?
Building Our Spiritual Muscles for the work ahead
The year 2016 shed light on the depth of political polarization in this country. Above the surface or under it, our families, neighbors and residents have been profoundly polarized on issues of immigration, race, LGBTQ rights and liberation for some time; and on questions of what the future of the country should be and how we get there. The election cycle gave voice to these divisions.
We are now in a new political terrain, but one that exists within centuries of old struggles and organized resistance around the questions of who has the right to exist, the right to lead, and the right to remain.
In 2016, Standing on the Side of Love (SSL) had a fortifying presence (directly or indirectly) in every major grassroots turning point ‘movement moment’ of the year. The primary movement moment where we have been present: support to Black Lives Matter chapters at ‘flash moments’ (Charlotte, Baton Rouge), Standing Rock, and Latinx organizing in Arizona. Organizing is happening constantly. Annually, only a few campaigns or moments capture national attention and imagination. The campaigns and moments that do are usually characterized by a layered configuration of multiple leaders and organizations present, with groups represented coming from inside and outside ‘organized’ non-profits.