December 28, 2014

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 AM meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Bill Hendricks

10:15 AM Racial Justice in America and this moment in time. How do we respond as Friends?

11:15 AM meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Jim Haefemeyer, speaker; Nancy Lichtenstein, musician; care of meeting, David Woolley

White Envelope Gift: Minneapolis Monthly Meeting has an annual Christmas-time offering called the White Envelope Gift which is collected during December and given, as a one-time gift, to selected organizations. Monthly Meeting approved the following recipients of this year’s gift:
• American Refugee Committee for its work in containing and treating Ebola in West Africa;
• Hildegard House in Duluth (co-founder, Judy Sausen, recently of MFM,) which offers safe hospitality for women as they leave a life of exploitation, violence and trauma; and
• Open Arms of MN, the only MN non-profit which cooks and delivers free meals tailored to the needs of those living with cancer, HIV / AIDS, MS and ALS. To contribute to the White Envelope Gift, make a check out to Minneapolis Friends Meeting and put “White Envelope Gift” in the memo line.

Friends are asked to please help move boxes of books from the balcony to the 44th Str. entryway at the rise of worship. St. Vincent’s will collect them later this week. IF your back and legs are able, please help! Also, help is needed at the same time clearing the meetingroom of chairs to create studio spaces for the directory photo sessions.

The Director of Ministry will be in the conference room for a half- hour of conversation at the rise of semi-programmed worship today. If you would like to join her and others to talk about what it’s like to be in Meeting (particularly if you are new to Meeting) or if you have questions about Quaker practice, please come.

UPCOMING MEETING EVENTS

*****
Directory photo sessions are THIS Fri, Jan 2nd, 12:30-7:15 and Sat, Jan 3rd, 10-5:00. LAST CHANCE to sign up for an appointment at the meetinghouse! You are welcome to bring family members, friends, dogs, cats, musical instruments- whomever and whatever you would like to be photographed with.

If you cannot come to the Meeting’s photo sessions, you can arrange to have LifeTouch take your photo at another church. If you are considering this, talk to Pat. One Friends has already had her photo taken in this way.

If you will not be having a photo taken by LifeTouch and still want to have one in the directory, please send an electronic or bring a paper photo to the office, with a note of permission given if it is professionally taken. Submitted photos should be vertical if at all possible. Submitted photos cost $10 each which includes the cost of a directory. It is possible that the Meeting may be able to offset this cost with points from other aspects of our participation.

Volunteers are needed Friday and Saturday – hosting during the sessions, setting up coffee or bringing treats! See Nancy or Susan to volunteer or for details.
*****

Bring some holiday cheer to Loaves and Fishes TOMORROW – Dec 29th, Holy Rosary Church, 2424 – 18th Ave So, Mpls. The shifts are: 2:30-4:30, cooking; 4:45-6:45, serving; 5:30-7:00, clean-up. Also needed, 20 batches of cookies (4 dozen to a batch), delivered to the meetinghouse today or brought to Holy Rosary by 5:00 on the 29th. Help is needed in all areas! Sign-up sheet is on the bulletin table.

Next week, all are welcome to the monthly Sunday potluck lunch! Please bring plenty of food so there will be ample to accommodate visitors and those at the end of the line. And please label your pot-luck item/s with ingredients!

Next Sunday at 10:15: Linda Coffin, a professional historian, will regale us with stories from Minneapolis Friends Meeting’s past. Bring your Quaker questions!

Read aloud and discuss an article from a recent Friends Journal. The George and Elizabeth Watson reading group will meet here on Weds, Jan. 14th, 7 pm, (instead of the third Weds. schedule). All are welcome.

Build community and get to better know and be known! Outreach and Welcoming Committee is sponsoring a series of home potlucks in February, March and April, 2015. For details, see the fact sheets and sign-up sheets on the elevator table.

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. Please give as you are able. To meet our budget obligations, contributions need to average $2,171 per week. $1,348.65 was the average weekly contribution in Nov. Thank you, Friends, for your generous support of the Meeting in all manner of ways.

OTHER HAPPENINGS AMONG QUAKERS

Start the New Year with prayerful listening . . . Lectio Divina (Divine Reading), or in Quakerese, worship sharing – 12 – 12:30, Thurs, Jan 1st, and 8th, Kenwood Isles. Light lunch to follow.

Twin Cities Friends Meeting is hosting a forum of queries and responses to the challenges offered in Rex Ambler’s The Quaker Way; 7:00 Thurs. evenings, Jan 22nd – Feb 19th. You will need a copy of the book (available at QuakerBooks.org). You need not attend all of the forums, but are encouraged to try! Some preparation is expected: completing the reading (chpt. one for the first night), marking two or three ideas that you find challenging and using it / them to form a query to offer the group. RSVP to stillsittingJohn(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com

The local American Friends Service Committee’s winter Freedom School is tomorrow and Tues. The Freedom School is a two-day program for youth who want to learn about systemic racism and how to dismantle it. A presenter from the AFSC Freedom School in Seattle is scheduled to be the main facilitator. If you can help by supplying any of the following items: a box of ball point pens (enough for 60 people)…one pack of markers…water (either bottles or gallon jugs)…approximately 70 soft drinks (coke, diet coke, sprite, root beer, orange soda)…160 granola bars…100 individual bags of potato chips, doritos, cheetos, etc….120 paper plates…120 paper cups…120 napkins…120 plastic forks, spoons, knives, being on call to offer rides to area young people, contact Sharon Goens-Bradley at sgoens(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)afsc.org .

The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), an experiential intensive series of workshops which offer training in non-violent communication, conflict resolution, and interpersonal relationships, is offering a first level training HERE, Jan 30th and 31st. Come prepared to help others discover their power to chose alternatives to violence in their lives and discover your own need for these skills. Registration is limited; contact Richard at the Friends for a Non-Violent World office for information and registration, avprichardm(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com, or call 651-644-5851. Sliding Scale Fee – suggested tuition of $75-$300. Scholarships are available. Registration includes meals and snacks. More at avpusa.org. MN AVP is sponsored by FNVW.

Mohja Kahf is speaking (via Skype) on nonviolent grassroots activism in Syria tomorrow, Dec 29th, at 7:00, Plymouth Congregational Church (1900 Nicollet Av, Mpls.) Mohja Kahf is the author of Friends for a Non-Violent World’s special report, “Then and Now: The Syrian Revolution to Date – A Young Nonviolent Resistance and the Ensuing Armed Struggle.” She has also written for the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Syrian Information web page, and co-authored, with Maciej Bartkowski, “The Syria Resistance: A Tale of Two Struggles” for the open Democracy E-zine. She is a member of the Syrian Nonviolent Movement, and is a well-known poet, performance artist, novelist, and full professor of comparative literature at the U of Arkansas. She is a signatory to the U.S. Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Co-hosted by FNVW.

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