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Minister's Monthly Column: February 2011 February 2011 - The Love Campaign & The Love Church - by Rev. Allison Farnum My senior year of high school, our English teacher led her students in what I came to remember as the “Love Campaign.”  For a prescribed period of time, we students were to engage in “random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” for others around us.  For the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, fellow students, family members, and random denizens of Maryville, Tennessee, found flowers tucked under their windshield wipers, love notes taped to their lockers, chores finished on behalf of a sibling, and spontaneous serenades sung in the street.  Each morning, we students put on a “Love” pin as a reminder that we were participating in our teacher’s campaign. The Love Campaign taught me that each day I can choose to be loving, creative, artistic, and daringly bold… all as an offering to Love.  In my experience, the offerings became less of an assignment and more of an experiment.  I asked myself, What are different ways to be loving?  Some were material offerings, other offerings were of my time and energy.  And the most exciting offerings were the gifts of imagination and creativity.  And yet, the experiment was quantifiable.  We kept a journal of our daily love acts; we were to wear our pins each day; and on the last day (Valentine’s Day) we all had a potluck lunch with a favorite dish to share. I share this story as a reminder to you of your power to engage in such a campaign… every day of your life.  And our church can be the nexus of the Love campaign of life!  As my colleague, the Rev. Kenn Hurto, recently reminded another congregation, let us work towards being known as “The Love Church” in our community, a congregation that generates random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.  And your commitment is quantifiable by your presence, your participation, and your financial support of the church.  The children in our religious education program need to know that this community loves them, so that they may carry on the Love Campaign for the next fifty years of Unitarian Universalism.  Newcomers need your random acts of kindness and welcome as they take the bold initiative to finally come to worship on a Sunday.  Your love can grow our Unitarian Universalist faith when you unapologetically share your enthusiasm for UUCFM with others!  May your offerings be freely given to the Spirit of Love that moves in and among us, taking us into the future of being The Love Church.

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