9:00 AM Unprogrammed meeting for worship: care of meeting, Tom Ward
10:15 AM Sharon Goens, American Friends Service Committee Director of the Twin Cities Healing Justice Program, will lead a circle discussion about healing justice, the focus of the local AFSC work.
11:15 AM Semi-programmed meeting for worship: first day school students will share their reflections on a year of community building, learning, and service. Nancy Lichtenstein, musician; care of meeting, Joanne Esser

TODAY
Nursery care today is downstairs with Susie Kanemitsu.

Those in the 9:00 unprogrammed worship will experiment with using a microphone for ministry from the silence. If you are led to speak, please stand as able or raise a hand and wait for the microphone to be brought to you. There are Friends who cannot hear the messages.

Fred Harding and Mary Logue will speak about frac sand mining, here, today, at 12:30 – what it is, how it has affected them personally, and what it means for communities in MN and WI. Bring a bag lunch, a cloth napkin, your own mug and cold lunch items to share. We are in a discernment process as a Meeting around our work on climate change, and welcome your presence and your input. You don’t have to be a political animal to be involved!

 

MEETING MATTERS / CALENDAR
Next week, you are welcome to the monthly Sunday potluck lunch. To regulars, please bring plenty of food so there will be ample to accommodate visitors and those at the end of the line. Also, please label your pot-luck item/s with ingredients or your name so those with allergies, vegetarians, etc can participate freely. Great work last month, with everyone pitching in to help! Let’s do it again!

Pat Jones is on medical leave. David Woolley is attending to essential Meeting needs in her absence, finding Friends to respond to ministry and practical needs. Contact David at davidw(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org or leave a message on the Meeting phone. Please contact him through the Meeting office only, except in emergencies.

Upcoming and final adult programs for this school year at 10:15:
May 5th: Barbara Coffin, born in 1920, has seen ninety-three years of race relations change taking place. Working her way from the racial ditties of her southern grandmother to a gradually expanding world of inter-racial contacts to inter-racial friendships, she still wants to learn more. She will share her experiences along the way.
May 19th: What happens in worship? More info coming.

The George and Elizabeth Watson Memorial Discussion Group will meet Tues, April 30th at 7:30 pm, finishing before 9. We will read Chapter 4 of Letters to a Fellow Seeker, “Ministering to One Another” together. You do not have to read it ahead of time. Please come even if you haven’t come before!

The Friendly Philosophers will meet Sunday May 5 at 10:15 in the basement or conference room.

Zephyra and Roland Shepherd Scholarship applications are due May 1st. This scholarship for post-secondary education was started by the Shepherds in 1977. Selection criteria and applications are on the long table in the east hall. Applications should be mailed back to the meetinghouse or put in the Shepherd Scholarship file in the blue box.

Nancy Lichtenstein and her trio will be performing a 1-hour concert, Sunday May 5 at 3 pm to celebrate 25 years of the Ariel Trio. The concert will be at Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet Ave. Minneapolis, LaSalle Ave Entrance, in the Chapel. Flyers are available today in the entry.

Might you be available on occasion to unlock and lock the meetinghouse on a Sunday morning when there is a need? Please call the meetinghouse office if you would be happy to be called on to do this – 612-926-6159.

Text & Image Workshop by Nancy Peterson and Mary Leikvold – a creative weekend of writing and image making, May 17-19 at Villa Maria. Deadline for registration is May 1. Info is on the long table, or online at villamariacenter.blogspot.com

The Villa Maria connection: Sarah McClellan is the Executive Director, Linda Harding the manager.

Volunteers needed for Loaves and Fishes: our next commitment is tomorrow night, April 29, Holy Rosary Church, 2424 – 18th Ave So. Shifts are: 2:30-4:30 cooking (5 needed); 4:45-6:45 serving (10 needed); 5:30-7:00 clean-up (5 needed). Also needed, 20 batches of cookies (4 dozen to a batch), delivered to the meetinghouse today or brought to Holy Rosary by 5 tomorrow. (Fruit / cookies or bars on the healthier side.) Help needed in all areas! Sign up sheet on the bulletin table.

Northern Yearly Meeting Annual Session, “Spiritual Hospitality”, will be May 24-27 at Lion’s Camp in Rosholt, WI. Registration materials are available. Registration deadline is May 4th. For more: northernyearlymeeting.org.

Looking ahead: Our summer schedule will begin May 26th. At the March monthly meeting, we decided that there will be one meeting for worship each Sunday in the summer months, starting at 10 AM. The first and third Sundays will be unprogrammed, the second and fourth Sundays will be semi-programmed. The one fifth Sunday in June will be intergenerational. Plan to engage in this opportunity – knowing each other widely and well, developing a trust and intimacy that will prepare us for the inreach/outreach of Quaker Quest in the autumn!

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. We are starting a new fiscal year. Our approved budget is $115,523 – requiring contributions of $2,221.60 per week.

OFFICE HOURS
Pat Jones is on leave following surgery. David Woolley will check the answering machine daily and be in the office while Pat is on leave.
Carolyn 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.

THE WIDER QUAKER COMMUNITY

Friends School of MN Plant Sale is coming May 10-12th. Volunteers are needed: FriendsSchoolPlantSale.com .
Friends School of MN has two job openings: Development Director and Admissions Director, both half-time positions. Job descriptions are posted on the long bulletin board.

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) action item: New legislation, S.Res.65, co-sponsored by nearly half the Senate, calls for the US to militarily support a hypothetical Israeli attack on Iran. Colonel Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, stated, “resolutions like S.Res.65 would call for the U.S. to surrender to another country the right to sweep the U.S. into a disastrous war.” Contact your senators. More at fcnl.org/issues/iran .

Step Up Efforts to Control Guns: Responding to the recent vote in Congress that defeated (for now) a measure to expand background checks for gun sales, FCNL is asking for supporters of gun control to step up the pressure on Congress. See http://fcnl.org/blog/2c/We_Cannot_Be_Silent_Now/ for helpful background and links, including a roster of how different senators voted on the measure.

Joint Religious and Legislative Coalition: Call or email legislators today! Urge them to pass tax legislation that supports a humane budget and raises revenues fairly: jrlc.org/advocacy/jrlc-action-alerts/580-take-action-for-fair-and-adequate-revenues

High Tea with SuperGroup (Erin Search Wells is a founding member!), May 11th. Tea, tasty treats, decadent desserts, crustless comestibles, good cheer and super surprises (coffee and mimosas too!) Send an email to info(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)supergroup.biz to make a reservation specifying number of people attending and the time (noon, 12:30, 1:30, 20:00, 3:00 or 3:30). You’ll get a reply confirming your reservation and giving you the address. Donations taken at the door. SuperGroup needs to raise $3000 to reach this year’s budget goal. More at http://supergroupshow.biz

QUAKER CONFERENCES / NURTURE

The 2013 Friends General Conference Gathering, “At the Growing Edges of our Faith,” will be in Greeley, CO, June 30-July 6. Registration has begun – some workshops fill quickly! The Gathering is a dynamic, Spirit-filled week for all ages – spiritually nourishing and exciting and bringing a fuller sense of what it means to be a Quaker. Scholarships available. Program and registration information is on the elevator table; financial assistance info on the bulletin board.

Quaker Earthcare Witness will offer A “Gathering for Deeper Relationship with Earth” in conjunction with FGC. We will meet daily during the FGC Gathering’s morning workshop time to seek, deepen, and clarify leadings toward right
relationship and peaceful unity with nature and the planet. Opportunities to share in other contexts too, including activities in the QEW Nature Center. See “secure.quakerearthcare.org/fgc-2013-deeper-relationship-with-earth” for more.

“Continuing Rev_l_tion: Be Brought Low and Back to the Root,” a Young Adult Friends Conference on simplicity will be held at Pendle Hill, June 14-19. Last year, thirty young adults from around North America participated. The focus of the gathering was supporting the spiritual and vocational journeys of the participants, ministry, earthcare and nonviolent social action. As one young participant said “I have a fervent belief that our world has to change drastically . . . I would like to find how my faith as a Quaker and my spirituality with this earth can inform the way I live and walk on our planet.” More at pendlehill.org/yald

Earlham School or Religion’s 2013 Leadership Conference, Friendly Marketing: Message, Motive and Means – Aug 16-18 in Richmond, IN. Pat Jones may go. You? esr.earlham.edu/news-events/events/2012-esr-leadership-conference

THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Unraveling the Culture of War: Global Hollywood and American Politics in the Age of 9/11. Dr. Lary May, Professor of History at the U of MN will offer this public lecture at The William G. Sheperd Room, Weisman Art Museum, U of M east bank campus, May 9th, 6:00 pm. May looks at films such as the Bourne series, Flags of Our Fathers, Syriana, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Babel. The lecture will be accompanied by film clips and illustrations detailing the changing face of movie making from World War II to the present.