9:00 AM unprogrammed meeting for worship: Zach White on the facing bench
10:15 AM “Prayer and the Quaker Tradition” with Marion VanDellen of Rochester Monthly Meeting
11:15 AM semi-programmed meeting for worship: Laurel O’Rourke, speaker; Nancy Lictenstein, musician; Chester McCoy on the facing bench

TODAY

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee will meet downstairs today at 10:15. All interested are welcome!

All of you interested in creating a circle 8 (a fellowship group of around eight people), plan to meet and decide a course of action over a bag lunch today at the rise of semi-programmed worship.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

Those dealing with hardship – financial, familial, personal – and those agencies, families and individuals supporting them.
Bob Nechal as he becomes Friends for a Non-Violent World’s new Managing Director. Bob will start April 1.

MEETING MATTERS / CALENDAR

Join Friends for a Poetry/Jazz Café – a fun evening of music, poetry reading by kids and adults, and homemade desserts! Sat, Jan 28, 7-9:30, at Mpls Meeting. Tom Wells, two of his band students, and John Kraft will play jazz for the first half hour and then between the different categories of poetry reading: (kids reading poems, original poetry, favorite poems). Sponsored by the Metro Friends Coordinating committee – flyer outside the meetingroom. Sign up to read a poem (your own or one you like) with Nancy Peterson.

Lunch Bunch will meet this Wed at The Commons, 10030 Newton Avenue South, 11:30. Reservations are needed. Call Louise White, 952-948-2672, before Tuesday to RSVP.

The memorial service for George Watson will be Saturday, March 10 at 2:00 PM at the meetinghouse.

Some people who had frequent contact with George in the past few years (or even further back) have expressed an interest to meet to share, informally, their remembrances and how his life and death have affected them. This gathering will be on Feb 4th at 2:00, here at the meetinghouse. Please contact the office if you wish to come and cannot. There could also be a group gathering on Sun, Feb 19th at 12:30.

Loaves and Fishes: Our next turn to serve at Holy Rosary Church, 2424 – 18th Ave So, is Mon, Jan 30th. Cooking – 2:30-4:30; serving – 4:45-6:45; clean-up – 5:30-7:00. Also needed, batches of cookies (4 dozen to a batch), delivered to the meetinghouse the 29th, or brought to Holy Rosary by 5:00 on the 30th. (Fruit / cookies or bars on the healthier side encouraged!) We need help in all areas! Sign up on the sheet by the bulletins. is Mon

Join Joanne Esser for the official launch of her poetry chapbook “I Have Always Wanted Lightning” Fri, Jan 27, 7:00 at Hamline University’s Giddens Learning Center, rm 100E (corner of Snelling and Hewitt). Joanne is hosting a party at her house in Mpls after the reading with more food, drink and enjoying each other’s company! Flyers are by the bulletins.

Congratulations to Kenda Helfrich! Kenda was awarded a full scholarship to do a Master’s course in acupuncture at Northwestern Health Sciences U in Bloomington! She and Camille moved back to the Cities in Nov.

Coming up: Friends General Conference Gathering, All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir. Sign up to receive an advance program and for monthly email updates at FGCgathering.org . Registration will begin April 4. The Gathering is a dynamic, Spirit-filled week for all ages. Meetings recognize that Friends return from the Gathering spiritually nourished and excited, with a fuller sense of what it means to be a Quaker. The Gathering this year will be in Kingston, RI, July 1-7.

All from MFM are welcome at a programmed worship January 29 in the community room of Strawberry Commons, 7298 – 72nd Lane North, Brooklyn Park. There will be a few Iowa Friends coming to worship too. This will be the first time worshiping at this location. At the time of printing the bulletin, we didn’t know the time.

MFMers are invited to Tikkun Olam, Sustainability, Eco-Kosher and Caring for Creation: Preparing for Tu’Bshvat, (the Jewish Festival of Trees,) with author and nationally-recognized Jewish sustainability leader Terry Gips, Friday, Jan. 27, 6:15 p.m. Welcome in this special Sabbath with songs, prayers, supper, and a lively presentation on Jewish Sustainability Perspectives. In the spirit of the evening, please bring a vegetarian (preferably organic and plant-based) dish to share.

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. Please give as you are able. Thank you, Friends, for your participation in and support of the Meeting in so many ways.

OUR WIDER COMMUNITY

Have you ever thought about traveling to Central America? Are you interested in learning about other forms of Quakerism? The El Salvador Committee of Northern Yearly Meeting is sponsoring a trip to visit El Salvador Yearly Meeting in August, 2012. This trip is open to Friends ages 15 and up. Teens, Adult Young Friends, adults and physically fit elders welcome. Interested or more info: Ruby Steigerwald at 612-721-7040 by 01-31-2012.

One Voice Mixed Chorus, Minnesota’s GLBTA chorus, presents its inspirational Brave Souls and Dreamers concert celebrating lives of visionary leaders TODAY at 3:30 PM at Hopkins High School, 2400 Lindberg Drive, Minnetonka.

The Interfaith Youth Leadership Coalition is marking the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution with a
panel discussion featuring: Kathleen Collions, Professor of Political Sciences, U of MN, Hatem Al-Hajj, Dean of Sharia Academy of America, Hamdy El-Sawaf, psychotherapist, and Keith Ellison, congressman, Jan 25th, 7:00 – 9:00 PM at Grace Center 1500 – 6th Street, NE Mpls.

OFFICE HOURS
Pat Jones will be in the office Wednesday from 2:00-5:00 and other times Wed, Thurs, Fri. and Sat.
Carolyn Sherer VandenDolder, the Administrative Assistant, will be in Wed. afternoon and Fri. Bulletin deadline, noon Thur. Bulletin items can be phoned in to the office, emailed or written and put in the bulletin file of the blue box.