****Highway closures for Sunday:
* Northbound I-35W will close between the downtown exits and Highway 280
*Southbound I-35W will close between the Highway 55 and the I-94/35W split
* Eastbound I-94 will close between the I-35W/94 split and Highway 55
* Westbound I-94 will close between Highway 280 and the downtown exits

9:00 AM open worship
9:45 AM worship with attention to business: Ranae Hanson, clerk; Tom Ward, recording clerk
11:15 AM open worship: care of meeting, Dave Bostrom

TODAY

Nursery care today is downstairs with Susie Kanimitsu.

Friends in both unprogrammed and semi-programmed worship are using the 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 otherwise cannot hear the messages.

Friends School of MN Plant Sale is coming to a close today at the State Fairgrounds. Don’t miss it!

MEETING MATTERS / CALENDAR

In preparation for our time of worshiping together this summer, Friends are reminded that meeting for worship begins when the first Friend enters the room and sits down. Enter the meetingroom quietly and refrain from loud conversation in the hallways outside the meetingroom until after worship. Thank thee kindly!

Adult program May 19th: Worship. Under what circumstances can we as Friends have an inspiring, nurturing and/or tender worship experience? What happens for you during worship? How do you center? How do you attune to the leadings of the Spirit? This program is offered to encourage dialogue and understanding in preparation for a single Sunday meeting for worship this summer. Facilitated by Joanne Esser and Sandy Olson.

Our summer schedule will begin May 26th. There will be one meeting for worship each Sun in the summer months, starting at 10 AM. The first and third Sun worship will be unprogrammed, the second and fourth Sun worship will be semi-programmed. The one fifth Sunday worship in June will be intergenerational.

You are welcome at the worship in Bloomington this Tuesday night, 7:00 at the home of Louise. Please come to this small, 45-minute open worship.

The Quaker women’s group will meet this Wed, May 15, at Twin Cities Friends Meeting at 12:30. Bring a bag lunch and fruit or cookies to share. Coffee and tea provided. Bring a mug so there will be no dishes! Discussion – race in our lives.

The George and Elizabeth Watson Memorial Discussion Group will meet this Wed. May 15 at 7:30. We will read Chp 5 of Letters to a Fellow Seeker together. You don’t have to read it ahead of time! Please come even if it’s your first time!

Feeling powerless to make a difference in the face of climate disruption? Raising your own vegetables lowers the carbon footprint of your food and promotes the power of the individual! Come to a workshop with Jim Lovestar and an expert from Gardening Matters (gardeningmatters.org) to explore ways in which you can feed yourself a quality diet from an urban plot. Come ready to share your experiences and ideas with urban gardening. Bag lunch, Sun, May 19, 12:30-2:30.

“The Price of Sand”, a one-hour film about the destructive nature of frac sand mining will be shown Wed, May 22, at 7 with discussion of actions we can take following the film. MN and WI are experiencing a mining boom but frac sand mining despoils scenic bluffs and byways and destroys the communities near them. Fracing itself consumes huge amounts of water and injects toxic waste into the ground, sterilizing farm land for generations, threatening local water tables and wrecking the lives of small towns and farm families. Please come! Invite your friends, neighbors, relatives! The more people who become aware and active, the more influence we wield. Come early to help set up chairs. Doors open at 6:00.

The Friendly Philosophers meet every Wed night, 7 PM at Bush Terrace Condos: 4014 – 15th Ave. So, Mpls. ffi: Gib, gibpellet(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com or Tessa, tessa-johnstone(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)hotmail.com.

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. Contribution total last week: $1,703.00. Thank you, Friends, for your generous support of the Meeting in all manner of ways.

OUR WIDER COMMUNITY

The next Every Church a Peace Church potluck supper meeting tomorrow night, Mon, May 13th, 6:30 p.m. at Macalester Plymouth United Church, 1658 Lincoln Ave, St. Paul. The program at 7 pm – a documentary film, “The Ground Truth,” followed by discussion. Follow ordinary enlisted men and women as they experience recruitment and training, combat in Iraq, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. Iraq proves a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought upon returning home: personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. Each becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness, giving support to other veterans and fearlessly speaking the truth. For more: groups.yahoo.com/group/MnECAPC.

MN Peace Project offers a lecture by Mark Osler on Toxic Politics, Tues, May 21, 7 PM, Lutheran Church of Christ the Redeemer, 5440 Penn Ave So, Mpls. Americans are increasingly repulsed by our political processes as the nation becomes increasingly divided. Osler will discuss the roots of this problem – the way in which our values and beliefs create the conversational divide – and possible strategies for effective dialogue. Mark Osler, a Professor of Law at the U of St. Thomas, has been involved in landmark cases challenging federal sentencing guidelines and the death penalty.

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. Meet daily during the FGC 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.

OFFICE HOURS

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.

The Administrative Assistant, will be out of the office until May 29. 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.