August 2, 2015

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

10:00 am  meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, John Stuart and Connie Archbald

Children and youth are always welcome in meeting for worship. Child care will be made available today in the lower level if there is a need.

NOTE OF CORRECTION: the new directory has an incorrect phone number for the meeting office. Directories waiting to be picked up have been corrected. If you already have your directory, change the number on the first page to 612-926-6159.

An informal group meets at 9 AM for Quaker education and discussion at the picnic table, (Turtle Bread if raining). Brief starting points provided. Today, Peace: fgcquaker.org/resources/quakers-consider-peace. Next week, sustainability and truth: quakerearthcare.org/article/sustainability-and-truth

Closing worship this summer: Following the handshake, visitors and new people are invited to introduce themselves, Friends are invited to share joys and concerns, and pre-arranged announcements may be made by the closer or the person who has made the prearrangement. (Preference and general practice is that all announcements be submitted for the bulletin.) Please help this closing time be brief so that Friends can move on to potluck, business meeting, coffee/tea and visiting, or other plans for their day.

Please come downstairs after the rise of worship today and share a potluck meal! Enjoy the opportunity for relaxed visiting and sharing even if you didn’t bring anything. For everyone, look for ways to help with this do-it-yourself effort – clearing, washing, drying and putting away dishes, washing tables, putting away chairs – so everyone can get out and enjoy the summer day!

UPCOMING MEETING EVENTS

Friends should be mindful of the presence of young people who might be in worship in the summer months. Pray for vocal ministry that might be meaningful to them, and be sensitive to the inappropriate nature of some subjects.

The use of the microphone in meeting for worship enables vocal ministry to be heard and held by all present. Microphone carriers are needed for a number of worship times beginning NEXT SUNDAY. Please consider offering this limited-in-scope but very important service to the Meeting. Sign-up on the yellow sheet on the bulletin table.

Caring for Creation tip: Do you have more cloth bags than you need? Donate a reusable bag or two to another meeting member by placing it in the basket on the table by the elevator. And if you need a bag, take one from the basket! Then take it with you wherever you shop—the drug store, the hardware store, the thrift store—to cut down on the amount of plastic bag litter. Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes, but researchers estimate that a single bag has a life expectancy of 500 years or more. Another way to donate a reusable bag is to take it with you to the grocery store and hand it to the next person in line. That might start a conversation about the huge problem of plastic bag waste.

A list of resources about solar energy – at the meetinghouse or your home – is available on the elevator table.

Join the Garden Party every 1st and 3rd Tuesday evening (6:00) from now until October. Meet with F(f)riends and tend the meetinghouse grounds! Contact Clifford for more: 651-646-5456 or (cell) 612-296-9892.

Offering boxes are located on small tables near the meetingroom doors. Please give as you are able. Copies of the Meeting’s 2015-16 budget are available on the table in the long hall.

OTHER HAPPENINGS AMONG QUAKERS

The Racial Justice Committee of Twin Cities Friends Meeting, in cooperation with the local office of the American Friends Service Committee, is holding a series of directed conversations about race and privilege at TCFM  (1725 Grand Ave, St. Paul) on Thurs evenings: August 6 and 13, at 7 p.m.. Watch the film Whitewashed  with sharing and reflection after: about our own identities, White privilege and systemic racism in American life and history. Learn to speak plainly about what privilege is in your life, Meeting,  community. Attendance at all sessions not required; any who want to share this work are welcome, but conversations will build upon previous ones, so come to as many as you can! Nettie Smith has been attending.

The 2015 Friends General Conference Gathering, “Seeking Wholeness,” was held July 5 – 11 in NC. For a limited time, several videos from the plenary sessions are available on the FGC website. They include: Opening session – “This is Holy Ground”; “Restorative Justice” by Daryl Atkinson and Scott Holmes; Parker Palmer’s talk on becoming whole by first being broken open . fgcquaker.org/resources/recordings-2015-gathering. Gathering attenders also enjoyed Quaker poet, songwriter, and singer, Carrie Newcomer. Although she could not be taped for copyright reasons, you can view one of her ballads, “You Can Do This Hard Thing”: youtube.com/watch?v=b9LWeUQvk24.

The St. Paul American Friends Service Committee’s Healing Justice program is running a Freedom School in St. Paul.  Three AFSC staff are coming from St. Louis and need housing August 10-15.  If you can offer hospitality, please call Sharon Goens-Bradley at 651-789-3852.

Fellowship of Friends of African Descent’s conference for Friends of Color and families, Aug 21 – Aug 23,  Philadelphia. To join the mailing list and receive information: deborahsaunders1(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)aol.com with: last name – first name – phone – street address – city, state – zip code – email address. Info also on FB – Fellowship of Friends of African Descent.

Friends Committee on National Legislation: Support Historic Iran Deal. Many members of Congress will be speaking out today and tomorrow, and everyone will vote in the coming weeks. What they hear right now from their constituents will influence their position going forward. For more, fcnl.org/issues/iran/

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Healing Minnesota Stories, an initiative of the St Paul Interfaith Network, invites you to tour Dakota sacred sites, led by HMS founder, Jim Bear Jacobs, and Bob Klanderud: Sat, August 22nd, 10 am to (approx.) 2 pm and Sat, Sept. 19th, 4 pm to (approx.) 8 pm. The tour centers around the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, what the Dakota refer to as Bdote, or “meeting place of rivers.” Tour stops include Ft Snelling, the site of the Dakota internment camp following the Dakota-U.S. War, and Pilot Knob Hill, a burial ground. Learn parts of MN history, long-ignored, from a Native perspective. Free. Register at spinterfaith.org/healing-minnesota-stories/educational-events.html

OFFICE HOURS
Pat Jones’ work week is Wed-Sun. She will be in the office Wed. 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.