Today is Day 30 of the Thirty Days of Love. Today’s action is to join us tonight (or tomorrow) for our closing Thirty Days of Love online worship service. Click here for details, family actions, and more!
“Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What does it mean to harness love’s power to stop oppression, exclusion, and violence? How do we stand on the side of love, bending the moral arc of the universe towards justice? Those are questions people of faith have been asking for thousands of years. Each of us, in our own day, must try to find and live our own answers.
I was privileged to be the founding director of the Standing on the Side of Love campaign, working closely with Campaign Manager Adam Gerhardstein and Helio Fred Garcia, who took our dream and created a strategic plan. But, ultimately, it was thousands of people like you who brought love’s power into the public debates on issues where, too often, fear and a desire for punishment dominate. So many different kinds of people have said: “Love’s people: Yes, that’s who my people are!”
From the beginning, Standing on the Side of Love has empowered people to speak love’s name in times that were fearful, constricted, violent. I have been so inspired to see love open doors which no other word could open. Love whispers our name, and grows when we whisper it back. Grows more when we harness our power to speak it loudly. Grows still more when we demand policies that support it.
I continue to stand on the side of love in my current role as Senior Minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF). CLF brings together people from around the world who might not otherwise be able to access the support of a loving faith community. We hold worship services online, where hundreds join us each week to carry the flame of love and justice.
To culminate the Thirty Days of Love, CLF and SSL will collaborate on an online worship service held Sunday night, February 17, at 8 PM Eastern US time and Monday, February 18, at 9 AM and 1:30 PM Eastern US time. For me it feels like a party where you invite people you love who might not know each other yet, and wait excitedly for them to make connections.
Please join us for celebration and worship this evening or tomorrow. Click here to RSVP and invite your friends and family.
Hope to see you soon! And thanks, as always, for magnifying love in this world that needs it so much!
With love and hope,
Rev. Meg Riley
Senior Minister
Church of the Larger Fellowship
PS: Don’t forget to share your stories and photos from the Thirty Days of Love! The SSL Team is creating a round-up of everything that happened around the country and they want to make sure that YOU are included.
