May 18, 2014

9:00 AM meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Roland Barrett

10:15 AM Pilgrimage. Jim Herther, and Harv and Julie Busta have walked the Spanish pilgrim route, Camino de Santiago, this past year and will speak of their experience. Diane Barrett will facilitate.

11:15 AM meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Paul Landskroener, speaker; Kathy Webster, musician; care of meeting, Clifford Goltz

TODAY

Sue has her camera here today to take your photo for the photo wall. Help us get to know each other!

Today is the last day of the school-year schedule and the first day school program. Stay after the rise of semi-programmed worship to say thank you to the dedicated teachers, Allen, John, Jane, Kassie, and Rae, the students and the parents who made the year a fantastic one! Special thanks and gratitude to Rae who is ending her role as religious education coordinator. She has ministered so faithfully with insight, creativity, energy, vision, dedication and patience!

MEETING MATTERS / CALENDAR

Make worship this summer a really friendly affair! Next week is the first week of the summer schedule – a single worship at 10:00. One of the things most people appreciated about the experience of this single worship last summer was the opportunity to visit with one another over a cup of coffee and a little tid-bit at the rise of worship. Friends are invited to help support this community-building time by hosting a social hour this summer. Bring finger food, set up coffee and hot water, visit, then do light clean-up afterwards. Ideally there will be two people for each social hour so the burden will be light. PLEASE SIGN UP if you are willing and able on the sign-up sheet on the library table or see Judith or Sandy.

Next Sunday, Memorial Day, the 25th, is the start of the summer schedule of a single worship at 10:00. We will alternate between unprogrammed and semi-programmed worship, week to week, starting with semi-programmed worship next Sunday. Childcare will be offered throughout the summer.

Lunch Bunch will meet Wed, May 28th, 11:45 at Presbyterian Homes in Bloomington. RSVP to Louise by Tues, March 27th. If you are available in the middle of the day, please come! It is a great opportunity to deepen relationships with and bring news to those not able to come to worship every Sunday.

There will be a meeting for all current committee clerks Sun, June 8th, at the rise of business meeting. Bring a bag lunch and/or simple food to share.

The Adult Program Committee is seeking your ideas! Who would you recommend to offer an adult program to the meeting? It might be someone within Minneapolis Meeting, someone else who is Quaker, someone else entirely, or someone with an organization you particularly love.

Building on the momentum of the Exploring Together event held at Twin Cities Friends Meeting in March, Friends School of MN is hosting a community meeting for worship at Friends School on Sun, June 1st, 1 – 2:00pm. All meeting members/ attenders and the school community are invited. Area Friends will tour Friends School with Lili Herbert, Head of School while school families attend a short (half hour) “Introduction to Quakerism” session. Then all will come together for a half-hour of worship. Please come!

American Friend’s Service Committee’s Film Series ends Thurs. June 5 with Anne Braden: Southern Patriot – a first person documentary about the extraordinary life of an American civil rights leader. This series brings L/light to systems that perpetuate racism and our role in disrupting them. After each film, AFSC’s Sharon Goens-Bradley, along with a member of the Quaker community, facilitates a discussion. No admission fee. More info: sgoens(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)afsc.org or 651-789-3852. Films shown at Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd St. Minneapolis, 6:30-9:00 pm.

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. Please give as you are able. Copies of the new budget are available on the elevator table.

OUR WIDER QUAKER COMMUNITY

Quaker values and personal financial decisions: Quakers have a long tradition of building our lives around our values. Beliefs lead to action. How do we handle our money? It is important to financially care for ourselves and our loved ones, but how can we do that in ways that also support Quaker values? Twin Cities Friends Meeting is hosting two workshops on this topic. Larry Jalowiec, Director of Friends General Conference Stewardship Services, and Craig Foor, a certified financial advisor with Everence, a Mennonite financial organization, will facilitate this program. Both workshops will be held at Twin Cities Friends Meeting (1725 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN). There is no fee for either workshop.
*Estate planning – Saturday, May 31st, 1 – 5:30: Good estate planning should include advance medical directives, powers of attorney, and other important documents that care for your loved ones, reflect your values, and support the causes you believe in. The workshop provides an overview of the financial considerations involved in the planning process and how to best use various annuities, trusts and other vehicles to help reduce your tax exposure and maximize your gifts to family and charity. It will also help you overcome procrastination!
*Stewardship investing – Sunday, June 1st, 1:30 – 3:30: Saving and investing is a hallmark of good stewardship, but how well do we connect our financial decisions with our values? This workshop will help you think about the values that are important to you and how they can be reflected in the investment decisions you make.

Friends General Conference: Let Love Be the First Motion. Taste the vibrancy and the variety that is available by immersing yourself in a community of Friends for a week at the Friends General Conference Gathering at California University of PA, south of Pittsburgh, June 29-July 5. The Gathering is packed with opportunities, from small group morning workshops to public evening plenaries; programs for children, teens and young adults. Opportunities for worship permeate the Gathering – indoor and outdoor; large groups and small. More at fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering. Registration deadline, May 31.

Friends United Meeting Triennial: A Great People to be Gathered in Christ, in Community, in Mission, June 11th – 15th at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN. The keynote Johnson Lecture will be given by Richard J. Foster – Quaker author, theologian and founder of Renovaré. Details at: fum.org/friends-united-meeting-triennial-2014/

Twin Cities Friends Meeting Art Fair – help sought. The Community Development and Fundraising committee is seeking interested artists/crafters/writers/musicians and others willing to join with Fran (of TCFM) to put on a Friends Neighborhood Fair, just for the fun of it! August 2nd. A table fee or 10% of sales goes to TCFM. In addition to artists, planners, preppers and folks to help haul, setup and takedown on fair day are needed. More soon at Four Rivers Friends.

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

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.

Friends Committee on National Legislation drafted a Sense of the Congress Resolution that you can ask your legislator to co-sponsor as a way of publicly declaring his/her commitment to addressing climate disruption. Read about FCNL’s approach to addressing our climate crisis along with a link to the resolution and ways to contact your legislators at: fcnl.org/issues/energy/call_to_conscience_on_climate_disruption/

OUR WIDER COMMUNITY

A Call to Action: come to the St. Paul Public School Board Meeting Tues, May 20th, at 5:30 PM! The poor academic performance of minority children in MN schools has been in the news. And the “School to Prison Pipeline” for people of color that results from poorly managed relationships is also tragically acknowledged. St. Paul educators who are deeply concerned about the direction district leadership has taken in terms of student conduct and behavior expectations in the St. Paul Schools have drafted a letter to spur a dialogue regarding these challenges and encourage community support and attendance at the upcoming School Board meeting. Read the letter at: fnvw.org , (it’s the last article.)

Middle East Peace Now: “Israel – ‘the only Democracy in the Mid-East’ – Is it?” 9:30 AM, next Sat. May 31st, Southdale Library. Israel and the U.S. consistently refer to Israel as “the only democracy in the mid-east”. We are going to take an in-depth look to see if it really is a democracy. This PowerPoint presentation by Alex Vella deals mainly with Palestinian citizens of Israel and the unequal treatment they face under Israeli law. More at www.mepn.org.

OFFICE HOURS
Pat Jones will out of the office this week except for Friday morning. Phone messages are checked daily.
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.