Minneapolis Friends Meeting State of Society Report
April 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018

This past year has been one of grace-kissed leave-taking and adaptive change. For the past 39 years, Patricia Jones, friend, anchor, and mentor, has offered her time, her gifts, and her heart to Minneapolis Meeting in her role as Director of Ministry. We give thanks for the rich relationship we have shared with her and for the thoughtful goodbye she and the planning committee allowed us.

We were blessed to have individuals willing to form an ad hoc Transition Committee to help us listen to each other’s thoughts and dreams about the Meeting’s future. Since the Director of Ministry’s departure and with the skillful help of this committee, we have begun the dance of transition – one that includes general anxiety about our future; reassurance when we consider the amazing gifts present in the Meeting; both impatience that we have not chosen a future staffing path and worry that a staffing path will be chosen too soon; celebration that we are in the company of such loving, committed Friends, willing to take on demanding roles; trust that God is with us. We are grateful to have an Interim Meeting Coordinator to help offer continuity in the midst of the changes.

Looking forward, many of the challenges we face remain the same as if we glance back: welcoming new-comers, particularly young adults and young families; integrating new attenders into the life of the Meeting; nurturing and encouraging spiritual growth and understanding of Quaker faith and practice; cultivating a new generation of leadership; supporting and maintaining a vital program for youth; responsible stewardship and care of the meetinghouse. We bump up against our limitations as the lives, work, and family commitments of members and attenders can leave insufficient time and energy to accomplish all the Meeting would wish.

We are grateful for the foundational work we have done over the years with Winds of Change, Quaker Quest, and our relatively new Welcoming and Outreach Committee. Though effort is still needed, we, as a Meeting, have grown to be more welcoming place. We give thanks for the new attenders among us – the very young (two babies!), the youth, the young adults, and the young at heart – and for the lives and witness of Arne Anderson and Dick Magraw who both died this past year. We delight in the Meeting children, spanning from 3 years old through high school, and appreciate the loving constancy of those who teach first day school and who offer other opportunities that enrich our students’ faith experience.

Worship continues to enrich us and binds us to each other and with God. We miss the musical ministry of Nancy Lichtenstein at semi-programmed worship and are grateful for those who are offering their time and musical talents to Meeting. We cherish the richness and unity of having our two worship times melt into one during the summer months.

We are fed by worship, Experiment with Light groups, Friendly Meal mixers, Friends General Conference Spiritual Deepening sessions and our Introduction to Quakerism / Quakers series, as well as by the many other formal and informal groups within the Meeting. These means of spiritual cultivation, coupled with our involvement in Quaker Voluntary Service and hosting the new SW Community Chorus, encourage us to feel we are growing spiritually, as Friends, as a Meeting community, and in connection with our wider community.

We are anguished as we consider how compromised the Earth and many of its inhabitants are and how difficult it is for us – individually, as a Meeting, and as a society – to make the changes necessary for just societies and a healthy planet. At a time when our culture seems increasingly divisive, we struggle against the seduction of partisanship and resist the “us vs. them” mentality. We yearn to embrace, with our hearts as well as our minds, that there is a Divine spark in every being – even those with whom we find little common ground.

We trust God will be with us through our cares, worries, losses and successes, large and small. We, all of us, are in Her care.