September 20, 2015

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 AM    meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Keitha Herron

10:15 AM    Integrity and Discernment, the first of a four-part series – led by Sandy Olson and Elizabeth Showalter

11:15 AM    meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Sara Hoppe, speaker; Nancy Lichtenstein, musician; care of meeting, Joanne Esser. First day school, downstairs.

“But the gift of grace is just that – a gift – and one cannot make it happen.”        ~ William O. Brown

Today is the first day of first day school! Parents are asked to join the class at the close of worship so that parents, teachers and children can meet each other, make some plans and get excited about the coming year.

First day registration forms are out. If you have a child or children who will be participating in first day school or other children or youth activities at Meeting, please fill out one form per child. In Sept and Oct, the theme will be community.

Weather permitting, first day school will hike on bikes next Sun. Parents welcome. Meet at the York Ave entrance by 11:00.

TODAY ONLY: Individual Friends can sign a revised letter of thanks to our Senators for their support of the Iran Accord.

Terry Hokenson invites Friends to meet downstairs TODAY at rise of semi-programmed worship to help him discern direction for his workshop at the 2016 FGC Gathering, exploring and addressing the emotional dimensions of climate crisis.

Mayim Rabim invites us to hear mystical interpretations of Yiddish music. Quiet our minds in stillness, contemplation, and devotion. Violinist Judith Eisner and her ensemble, here, TODAY, 2:00. A meditation – no applause. Free.

Cannon Valley Friends invite Friends to their Open House, TODAY, 1:00–5:00 pm.  Come explore their new building, have some refreshments, and enjoy music, Peace cranes, puzzles. 512 Washington in Northfield.

UPCOMING MEETING EVENTS

Get your Fall Camp registration turned in! Fall Camp, a weekend retreat for Minneapolis Friends Meeting members and attenders, offers a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another. Come Oct. 10th-11th, for all or part of the weekend, at Villa Maria in beautiful Frontenac, MN. Anyone with dietary restrictions should turn in their registration by today. (Look for the fall camp box top!)  All other registrations are due by next Sun, Sept 27th.

Adult program next Sunday, Sept 27: Three men who have been helped by the Alternatives to Violence Project will lead. They will continue at the October 4th adult program, leading exercises.

There is a Google Group/email list for young adult Friends or young adults interested in Quakerism who would like to do things with other young adult Friends. Join at: groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/minneapolisyaqs

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

Interested in being challenged to think deeply or differently about Quakerism and to become more conscious of what it is we’re committed to? To describe “the experience that takes us beyond all words to an encounter with life in the silence” and “to attempt to describe the experience, and to try to explain why it is important, how it can be gained, and what difference it makes to our lives and to our engagement with the world”? A study of Rex Ambler’s The Quaker Way will begin at 7:00, Oct 15th at Twin Cities Meeting, 1725 Grand Ave. The well-received workshop deepening your spirituality using The Quaker Way as text is running for 6 Thurs evenings, Oct 15 – Nov 19th. Space is limited.

Become more bold, effective, and spiritually grounded in activist work for peace, social justice, and sustainability. Pendle Hill’s pilot online/on-campus program, Answering the Call to Radical Faithfulness, was a success! The program includes four short training residencies at Pendle Hill, weekly readings, online learning activities, and fieldwork projects in each participant’s community. There remain a few spaces for the upcoming session starting in Oct. Does this program interest you? Is it a fit for others you know who are called to spiritually prophetic activism and organizing? If so, visit pendlehill.org/learn/radicalfaithfulness for more. Or contact Steve Chase, the program director, at schase(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)pendlehill.org or 610-566-4507, x123. Scholarships are still available.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Jump-start inspired, connected, strategic work on climate action this fall! MN Interfaith Power and Light invites people of faith to a warm evening of food, fellowship, strategy and celebration, welcoming Pope Frances’s visit THIS Wed, Sept 23, 6-8 PM, St. Francis Cabrini Church, 1500 Franklin Ave, SE.  RSVP needed: mnipl.org . Go and contribute your quiet Quaker attention and bring information, inspiration and enthusiasm back to the Meeting!

Native Voices for Planet Earth: learn about and support American indigenous people – some from MN – traveling to the Dec. UN Climate Conference in Paris. More posted. Event on Sat, Sept 26, 10:30-4, The Paul and Sheila Wellstone Ctr, St. Paul.

Every Church A Peace Church potluck meeting is TOMORROW, Sept 21st, 6:30 PM at St. Joan of Arc Church, 4537 – 3rd Ave. S., Mpls. Rev. Nancy Maeker: A Christian Response to the Wealth Gap. Discussion, presentation, and interactive exercise exploring the causes and realities of the wealth gap and how God calls us to care for each other, working for enough for all. Nancy Maeker recently retired from directing A MN Without Poverty, a statewide movement to end poverty in MN by 2020.

Donations Needed: This Sept, Refugee Services expects at least 60 new refugees to MN. Pots, pans, and deodorant needed as well as twin bedding and toothpaste. Please donate these urgently needed items – Minnesota Church Center (122 W Franklin Ave, Mpls). Questions to rsvolunteers(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)mnchurches.org or (612) 230-3219.

OFFICE HOURS
Pat Jones will be on vacation until Thurs, Oct. 1st.
Carolyn VandenDolder, the Administrative Assistant, will be in Wed. afternoon and Fri morning.   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.