Courageous Love
What would it look like for me to love more courageously: in my personal life, my community, and the wider world?
Monthly Reflection
Love, when lived fully, is not soft or safe. It is bold, disruptive, and transformative. Courageous love dares to cross boundaries, to speak hard truths, to show up vulnerably in a world that teaches us to hide. It fuels justice, risks comfort for connection, and chooses compassion. This month, we remember that love is not just an emotion, but a spiritual calling; one that asks us to live with open hearts and strong spirits.
Significant Dates
02/04 Rosa Parks’ Birthday
02/06 International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
02/13 Black Love Day
02/14 Frederick Douglass Day
02/14 Valentine’s Day
02/17 Beginning of Ramadan
02/23 W. E. B. Du Bois Day
Celebrating Diversity: Black Excellence: Celebrating Global Legacies and Local Luminaries
As we move into February, we transition from the quiet “revolutionary dreaming” of January into a vibrant celebration of Black Excellence https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history. This month, we honor the brilliance that has shaped our world, from the ancient kingdoms of the African continent to the innovators and organizers leading the way in our local communities. Black Excellence is not a singular event or a static record of the past: it is a continuous river of innovation, resilience, and vision that flows through every aspect of human history and our shared future.
Weekly Themes
Week 1: Ancestral Wisdom and Global Roots
Week 2: Visionaries of Science and Discovery
Week 3: The Global Sonic Diaspora: Rhythm as Resistance
Week 4: The Architecture of Local Care: Community Luminaries
Sunday Celebrations Overview
NOTE: BridgesUU does not host Sunday Celebrations. We offer resources including monthly and weekly blurbs, Celebration Outlines, Sunday Scripts, Musical Selections, Celebrating Our Youth Stories, Activies, and Resources, as well as, Multimedia Decks.
Our theme this month is “Courageous Love,” asking: What would it look like for me to love more courageously in my personal life, my community, and the wider world?
Together we will explore the many ways we show love, reflecting on Progressive Christianity and Ramadan, to celebrating generosity on Stewardship Sunday, February invites us to live boldly, vulnerably, and compassionately, letting love guide our actions and our faith.
Sunday Celebrations
Sun, Feb 01, 2026 – “Showing Love”
Love is more than words ~ it is practice. We will explore the many ways we embody courageous love: through kindness, advocacy, solidarity, and the simple act of showing up for one another. What does it look like to move from saying “I care” to living “I love” in concrete and transformative ways?
Sun, Feb 08, 2026 – “On Progressive Christianity”
Progressive Christianity invites us into a vision of faith that is rooted in love ~ love of neighbor, of justice, of creation, of the Divine. We will explore how progressive Christian voices shaped Unitarian Universalism’s call to courageous love and how that love continues to challenge religious and cultural boundaries.
Sun, Feb 15, 2026 – “From Islam with Love”
As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, we turn to the wisdom of Islam, where acts of devotion, fasting, and generosity embody courageous love for God, community, and the stranger. In a time when Islamophobia still harms our Muslim neighbors, we reflect on how interfaith solidarity is itself an act of bold, loving courage.
Sun, Feb 22, 2026 – Stewardship Sunday: “Giving in Love”
Love is not only expressed in words or feelings, but also in how we share our resources, our time, and our energy for the sake of our community. On this Stewardship Sunday, we celebrate the ways courageous love sustains and strengthens our congregation. Together, we ask: “What does it mean to give with open hearts and trust in our shared future?”
Creative Arts
Each month we are creating our music that align with our theme for the month. All of our music is available for unlimited use by BridgesUU Covenanting Communities. If you are interested in becoming a BridgesUU Covenanting Community or licensing one of our songs, please let us know. We will be happy to provide sheet music as well as audio and video files.
Song of the Month:
“BridgesUU: 3008: Love Beyond”
Written & Composed by Paul Ermisch
(verse 1)
The fire burns so deep beneath the ground.
Within the roots where stands the tree of life.
A passion and a calling that we’ve found.
A sacred bond that carries us through strife.
To open wide our hearts to those who’re near.
When holding back would be the wiser gain.
Chorus
To love and stand beyond the borders of our fear.
And let our lives proclaim what words can’t name.
(verse 2)
It would be easier to hold our hearts
And build our walls to keep the world outside.
But something in the fire now imparts
A strength to stand when we would run and hide.
To love without conditions or an end.
To show our generosity and grace.
(chorus)
(verse 3)
The roots run deeper than we understand.
The calling echoes louder than our fear.
We reach across the darkness, hand to hand.
And find that love has always led us here.
To love as wide and boundless as the sky.
To give when giving costs us everything.
(chorus)
Additional Musical Selections:
The following musical selections align with our theme for the month.
STLT: 112: Do You Hear?
STLT: 205: Amazing Grace!
STLT: 323: Break Not the Circle
STLT: 352: Find a Stillness
STJ: 1056: Thula Klizeo (Zulu chant from South Africa)
LifeSpan Learning
Love isn’t just about kindness, it’s also about being brave! This month, we’ll explore how we can show love by standing up for others, speaking out truth, and taking care of what we believe in, even when it’s hard. Through stories, gams and creative activities. Our children will discover how their hearts can be strong and loving at the same time.
More 2025/26 Year Themes
For more information and access to other events, sign our Guestbook!