Remember our previous post about sending out thank you cards to people living our faith out loud in the world?  The Standing on the Side of Love’s Courage Love Awards is in that very same spirit, but on steroids!  Please get your congregation involved in a way that builds love, spirit, and energy.  Cultivate gratitude and joy!

If your congregation just isn’t in a place to embark on such a venture, don’t let that stop you!  Encourage your local ecumenical or interfaith council to participate. Call a family meeting and give your own awards out on behalf of your family!  Perhaps you could bake chalice and heart cookies to send along with the award.  Or gather a group of justice-love-minded friends together and declare yourself an unofficial Council of Witness to Courageous Love. Perhaps including a Standing on the Side of Love shirt with the award. Do you get the idea?  Then share your stories of Courageous Love.

The following information is taken from the Standing on the Side of Love website.

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.

When thinking about whom you might honor, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• How might you start new partnerships or strengthen existing ones?
• Is there someone you wouldn’t normally honor, who is outside your group, who might be a good recipient?
• Is there someone who has inspired a local movement for love?
• Is there an organization or individual who has faced oppression, discrimination, and prejudice with grace and inspired determination?
• How might you present a Courageous Love Award in a way that will help stand on the side of love with marginalized communities?
• How might you present a love award in a way that will reach beyond National Standing on the Side of Love Month and strengthen your whole social justice program?
• How might you make this intergenerational and involve families and your religious education program?

Need some more inspiration? Check out our courageous love map, see how congregations have honored people in the past, and download our list of ideas for celebrating courageous love!

Click here to download a copy of the Courageous Love Award certificate.

Looking for more ways to celebrate the Thirty Days of Love? Take a look at our resources page.