April 13, 2014

9:00 AM meeting for worship

9:45 AM worship with attention to business: Ranae Hanson, clerk; Tom Ward, recording clerk

11:15 AM meeting for worship: care of meeting, David Woolley

TODAY

Nursery care today is downstairs with Susie Kanimitsu.

Zephyra and Roland Shepherd Scholarship applications and eligibility criteria are available on the long table in the east hall and are due April 27th. This scholarship for post-secondary education was started by the Shepherds in 1977. Applications should be mailed back to the meetinghouse or put in the Shepherd Scholarship file in the blue box.

Minneapolis Friends Meeting will show The Years of Living Dangerously — a new show about climate change that sounds informative and promising – TONIGHT! Gather at 6:30, program starts at 7. You can RSVP for the event at: http://act.350.org/event/years/7312/ . If you register, we’ll know how many to plan for (18 have signed up already!), but you are also free to just show up. Hope you can come!

MEETING MATTERS / CALENDAR

First day school this Spring: members and attenders of Minneapolis Friends Meeting are sharing their journey into “living the testimonies.” A big thanks to Doug, Judy, and Nancy who presented an active session on conflict management, part of their Alternatives to Violence (AVP) work. Also Nettie came in and showed us a video of North Mpls children and their dreams. We explored creating community in a diverse setting. All the guest speakers were WONDERFUL! Thanks to them and all of you for supporting the youth in the Meeting. Next up, Clifford, then Tom and Darlene and ending with a member from Mayim Rabim. We are truly blessed!

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) invites all Friends from the metro area who have a concern for racial justice to come to a gathering Wed, April 16th, 5:30-8:30 pm. (dinner provided – RSVP below), at the AFSC office, 1671 Summit Avenue. Have you been to the national White Privilege Conference, the Overcoming Racism conference, or other anti-racism events? Are you wondering how to get involved in racial equity and justice work? Come listen to and share answers to a few questions: How did the conference(s) impact you? What do you want to do with your experience? What would you love to see happen next? What would engage you, or fill a longing that you have, around the creation of a society that works for everyone? In what ways, large and small, can we get started? FFI: Sharon Goens-Bradley, sgoens(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)afsc.org, 651-789-3852.

Jim is hosting an informal, semi-programmed worship, including a reading from Matthew, at the meetinghouse, 5:30, Fri, April 18th, for those who wish to worship together on the day most Christians mark Good Friday. A simple supper follows.

Come to the brunch next Sun, Easter, at 10:15! Men are sought to help host next Sun. Able and willing to join in food preparation, serving, and/or cleanup? Contact Jim. Other food welcome!

Looking ahead: Come to storytelling 7:00 Thurs evening, April 24th, here at the meetinghouse. This informal, engaging evening – for newcomers and old-timers alike – is a delightful way to know and be known.

Northern Yearly Meeting’s annual session, “What Canst Thou Say?” is coming Memorial Day weekend! A few paper registration and session information packets are available on the elevator table, see http://www.northernyearlymeeting.org/ or contact the office for an electronic copy. Northern Yearly Meeting was created to provide support for and between worship groups and monthly meetings in the upper mid-west. Annual sessions offer times of fellowship, relaxation, worship, dancing, talent displays, workshops and interest groups. Want to know more? Ask Connie, Allen, Pat, Marilyn, Dave, John, Nettie, Jim or Carolyn (recent past attenders.)

~Help everyone get to NYM burning as little fossil fuel as possible – share rides! No guarantees, but we will do our best to match you up with a ride or rider. Contact Ron at rondo(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)chorus.net or Muir at muir.mulholland(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com, by May 19th. Earlier means a better chance of getting matched up.

The Quaker Family Band will provide live dance music (Demi Miller calling,) Sat, April 26th at Twin Cities Friends Meeting. Doors open at 6:30, music, 7-9:30 PM (with a couple breaks). Treats to share appreciated. Organized for fun and to encourage Friends to be friendly with each other! For all ages! Brought to you by Metro Friends Coordinating Committee.

A Northern Yearly Meeting retreat for high school Quaker youth is coming up, April 25 to 27 in Duluth. Friendly Adult Presences are needed. For more, contact coordinator, Celeste.

~A Northern Yearly Meeting retreat for middle school Quaker youth is a little further out, May 2-4 at Twin Cities Friends Meeting. Help is needed with chaperoning as well as transporting teens. For more: Cathy.

Northern Yearly Meeting is looking for a new High School Coordinator. Celeste, the current coordinator, is leaving the position after Yearly Meeting to study abroad. The job will start during the summer and requires an average of 40 hours per month (not evenly spread) and pays $6,000 / year. FFI contact: Mary calumetdreams(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)yahoo.com.

Workshop leaders are being sought for this year’s Northern Yearly Meeting session. Workshops and interest groups bring Friends together at NYM to share their passions and interests. Workshops begin with a presentation, often, but not necessarily, related to the theme for the year (What Canst Thou Say?). Ideally, the workshops collectively address issues of personal spiritual growth, building the Meeting community, and social action. They are scheduled from 1:30 to 3:30 on Saturday or Sunday. Please send your ideas! Include a description, your name and contact info by May 16.

Read about Neonicotinoids, which kill bees, and the steps the Friends School Plant Sale have taken to ensure bee safety in their plants – an article on page 30 of the plant sale flyer. They also offer a partial list of products that may contain neonics.

Mayim Rabim invites us to an Art Schmooze! This fun, causal, drop-in event is Sun, April 27th, noon – 4:00, 3840 – 26th Ave. S. in Mpls. Original, hand made art/crafts by Mayim Rabim members and their families will be on display and for sale. Grab a nosh, buy some art, and schmooze (chat) with members of the wonderful MR community. All proceeds go to support MR.

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. Please give as you are able.

OUR WIDER COMMUNITY

The fourth Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) is April 14, 2014, coinciding with the release of the annual statistics on global military spending by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Join the rest of the world in bearing witness to the fact that military spending, especially the impact of US military spending, stands as the major obstacle to addressing the human needs and environmental crisis facing all of peoples globally. More at: demilitarize.org/gdams-2014/gdams-us/

The White Privilege Self Study Group is hosting a conversation on participants’ spiritual journeys for clearness, addressing our relationship as Quakers to white racism and privilege. April 21, 7pm, at Twin Cities Friends Meeting. Contact Betsy or Liz FFI.

“Reel Bad Arabs: Images of Arabs and Muslims in Popular Culture”: Dr. Jack Shaheen, author of “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” will be a guest speaker April 22nd, 5-6:30 at Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center, U of St. Thomas, St. Paul. Dr. Shaheen has lectured throughout the world and has written about the damaging caused by racial and ethnic stereotype – of Asians, Jews, Latinos, African Americans, American Indians and others. Free.

Play at Friends School: Wed, April 23rd at 7 pm – Mixed Reality explores identity and what it means to be bi-racial using movement, dialogue, and voice. This one-woman show about growing up as a multiracial individual is an opportunity for all of us to ask the questions: Who am I? What am I? What do I believe? Why do I believe? There is no charge.

The “Doctrine Of Discovery” documentary will be shown Tues, April 29, at 7:00 pm at Sundin Hall, Hamline, as part of MN’s Genocide Awareness Month. The film focuses on the incredibly powerful and little discussed religious justification early explorers used to claim lands from indigenous nations and peoples. A post-film discussion will be led by filmmaker Sheldon Wolfchild, a member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community, along with Steven Newcomb, founder of the Indigenous Law Institute, and Twin Cities Friends Meeting’s Howard Vogel, professor emeritus at Hamline Law School.

Activist and citizen-journalist Qusai Zakarya will be in the Twin Cities, May 4 and 5. Qusai survived the 2013 Moadamiya, Syria chemical weapons attack and over a year of life under siege. His 33-day hunger strike inspired world-wide support to break the illegal siege of cities across Syria. He will offer his powerful, personal account of the Syrian crisis at two venues: Sun, May 4, Crescent Moon Bakery, 2339 Old Central Ave, Minneapolis – buffet dinner at 5:30 pm, presentation at 6:30 pm; and Mon, May 5, 7:00, at Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet Ave, Mpls. Sponsored by Friends for a Nonviolent World, Global Affairs Committee of Plymouth Congregational Church and the International Solidarity Hunger Strike.

Continuing Revolution: A Young Adult Friends’ Conference on Community will be offered next summer, June 6-11, at Pendle Hill Retreat and Study Center in PA. Young adults are particularly well-poised to become the inspired and effective change agents that are needed in the world, and at its core, this conference is about providing the foundational skills and training to inspire revelation – or revolution – as we strive to live in Spirit-led relationship with ourselves, our communities, and the earth. See pendlehill.org/yafcon for more. Flyers about the conference are on the elevator table.

Pendle Hill Study and Conference Center is offering a Summer Resident Program, Writing Your Story, Discerning Your Future: Your Summer Sabbatical at Pendle Hill, July 6 to August 3, 2014. Participate in four short courses; meet weekly, one-on-one, with a spiritual nurturer; join with your fellow students and scholar-minister Paul Rasor to integrate your learning in community each week; enjoy daily worship, a user-friendly library, an open art studio, delicious healthy meals, shared work, and a community of fellow seekers all on the beautiful tree-shaded grounds of the 23-acre arboretum campus. The four short courses are titled: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography, John Woolman Speaks to Us Today, Brave New Journaling, and The Sacred Art of Spiritual Discernment. Cost: $5500. Some scholarships are available. Contact Bridget Casterline at admissions(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)pendlehill.org or 610-566-4507, ext. 161 for information about the program or scholarships. More at pendlehill.org/residentprogram/courses/summer-2014

There’s a new Quaker channel on You Tube! Quaker Speak is a project developed by Friends Journal, Friends General Conference, Quaker Volunteer Service and young adult Friends Jon Watts. The inaugural clip is about Quaker beginnings; others in the series cover faithfulness, activism, silence, the end of violence, and music. Check it out! http://quakerspeak.com

OFFICE HOURS
Pat Jones will be in the office Wednesday from 2:00-5:00 and other times Wed, Thurs, Fri. and Sat.
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.