Minutes of Monthly Meeting for Business, July 12, 2020
Minutes of Monthly Meeting for Business
July 12, 2020
Attendance: John Kraft – Presiding Clerk Stephen Snyder—Recording Clerk [Some names and content have been edited or removed for publication on the web.]
1. Silent Worship
2. Requests – Leave time in between each speaker. Take time to let emotions settle and the Light’s message form before speaking. Speak from the Light instead of simply responding to another’s message, unless you want to clarify what’s been said. We are seeking a common understanding of what the Light is telling us as a community, not just trying to get our individual point across. Wait for the microphone.
3. Approval of Agenda The agenda was approved with the addition of a request from the Nominating Committee and the Religious Education Committee
4. Approval of Minutes Minutes of the June 14, 2020 Meeting for Business were approved.
5. Care and Counsel Report The committee is charged with oversight of pastoral care in the Meeting but recognizes this is a shared responsibility of all members and attenders. The committee tries to facilitate pastoral care by connecting the gifts of friends with specific pastoral needs as they emerge. In additional to offering the traditional clearness committees for persons dealing with personal issues, Care and Counsel identified a list of persons willing to listen and have conversations with other friends and set up a Telecare program for friends wishing to discuss spiritual or life issues with persons in meeting having these skills. It also created a $10,000 Covid -19 Response Fund for members/attenders who are experiencing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic. Regular members and attenders can apply for up to $1500 and reapply after 60 days. So far, two people have requested funds leaving a balance of $7000 in the fund. The committee has also gotten in touch with nearly everyone in the meeting, through email or phone calls. There does seem to be a reluctance to ask for assistance, but personal inquires sometimes generate confidence that it is ok to ask for help. All friends are encouraged to participate in this ministry of outreach to the community. Discussion: Friends expressed appreciation for all the work Care and Counsel members have done and reminded friends that anyone can invite others to be part of a clearness committee without necessarily going through Care and Counsel. Clerk thanked the committee for its excellent first report.
6. Ministry and Counsel Committee Report In addition to overseeing the meetings for worship on Zoom the committee has formed two new clearness committees, one for marriage and one for membership. Based on the report of a previous membership clearness committee Ministry and Counsel recommended and meeting accepted Linda F. into membership in Minneapolis Friends Meeting.
7. Nominating Committee Nominating committee recommended and meeting approved the appointment of Jane F. to serve on Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) Local Support Committee.
8. Memorial Minutes for Louise White and Mumia Shimaka Clerk asked for volunteers to write memorial minutes for Louise White and Mumia Shimaka. Two Friends agreed to prepare these memorial minutes.
9. Reports a. Stewardship and Finance Quarterly update
Meeting’s fiscal year (FY) began April 1st. In the first quarter of this FY 2020-2021 donations received were about 11% of the annual budget. Expenses for this quarter were about 10% of the budget. Although not in the original budget, $1500 was spent from the new Covid- 19 Response Fund which meeting authorized earlier. The committee reminded Friends that even though the meetinghouse is closed, those who are able can continue to contribute to Meeting by mailing a check to the Meetinghouse or by arranging for a funds transfer from their financial institution.
b. Nursery Committee Annual Report The committee reported on the process for vetting and hiring a resident of Linden Hills, to serve as the full-time nursery employee. Although the pandemic interrupted this process this person is eager to work with the children in the nursery once the meetinghouse is reopened for worship. A second person will also be working with this person as required by Meeting policy. Going forward the committee will be looking at how to create a safe environment for children once worship begins again at the meetinghouse. Discussion: Friends, by acclamation, joined in thanking Betsy S. and other Friends for their years of service in the nursery and on the committee.
c. Northern Yearly Meeting (NYM) Northern Yearly Meeting currently has 30 constituent monthly meetings and worship groups, 884 attenders and members and 146 children and youth–a slight increase from last year. Most meetings in NYM are not continuing First Day school during the pandemic with the exception of Madison Monthly Meeting which has which has been creating a historical time machine. Antiracism was one focus of the annual session. Friends acknowledged that NYM Friends live on land where Native Americans formerly resided. NYM’s Anti-Racism Working Group (ARWG) proposed that NYM adopt the goal of becoming an actively anti-racist community and make the ARWG a standing committee to facilitate this goal. NYM has also set up a monthly discussion on the Podcast series “Seeing White” to prepare Friends to move forward from intention to action. Friends can access the Podcast at: https://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/. The Plenary Speaker at the NYM session challenged Friends who often have a hard time with pain or uncomfortable feelings to enter into nonintellectual self-examination. She spoke of the interconnected nature of social constructs such as race, class and gender and how they create interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage. Friends were also invited to participate in the FGC Spiritual Deepening e-retreat on understanding and healing white supremacy scheduled for later this fall. Minneapolis Friends are encouraged to become more involved with Northern Yearly Meeting going forward.
d. Religious Education (RE) Annual Report The Religious Education Committee develops and oversees the religious education program for children and youth in the meeting. This past year there were about 19 children registered with the program with 7 attending regularly. The elementary group focused on Quaker stories about George Fox and John Woolman. The teens explored Friend’s testimonies. The RE program was staffed by a handful of “anchor” teachers but needs more adults who are eager to engage with the children. The children and youth tackle issues in amazing, creative ways and are just a lot of fun to be with. Friends are invited to consider how their spiritual path will be enriched by spending time with them, and contact anyone on the Religious Education committee to explore volunteering. Meeting began an experiment with holding First Day School during the mid-morning program time to accommodate families and make worship more available to the youth. Unfortunately this experiment was interrupted by the pandemic and the move to online worship. There was one meeting with children on line. The committee is currently getting feedback from families to assess the value of the change. Given the uncertainty around the Covid-19 pandemic, there are perhaps more questions than concrete plans for Religious Ed programming in this fall. If meeting continues to offer First Day School during the midmorning programming time, there will likely be a need for at least one, if not two, more Zoom accounts. The RE Committee is also in need of a clerk and more teachers going forward. The committee is grateful for the people who stepped forward to serve on the committee and work with the youth and for the tenderness of their relationships with children and other adults. Discussion: Clerk wondered if there are funds in budget to set up Zoom accounts for first day school. Friend noted that Zoom offers free accounts for up to 40 minutes. There was discussion of the ongoing difficulty of finding adults to work with children. Some friends suggested it was time to seriously consider hiring a paid religious education director or perhaps a Quaker Volunteer Service fellow so children get the attention Meeting desires for them. Perhaps meeting needs to set up some structure to investigate a youth minister proposal. Clerk and friends expressed gratitude for the service of the RE Committee members and all those teachers and volunteers who work with children and youth in the Meeting.
e. Quaker Volunteer Service (QVS) Quarterly Report Six fellows are finishing up their year-long placements in local work programs. Everyone is invited to the sendoff of this year’s volunteers on July 18th, probably on Zoom. In August volunteers are needed to clean the QVS house for the seven new fellows who will be working in Twin Cities this coming year. Two of these fellows will be at Friends School of Minnesota. On July 6th the fellows had their final meeting with the local QVS nurturers who work with fellows on their spiritual life during the year they are in residence. Friends thanked those members going off the support committee for their work in getting the QVS program implemented.
10. Care Fund Proposal Clerk moved consideration of this proposal to the August meeting for business to allow adequate time for consideration.
11. Correspondence Meeting received loving messages of support and prayer from the Pittsburgh and Orlando Friends Meetings, the Valley Friends Meeting in Dayton, Virginia, the Black Concerns Committee of New York Yearly Meeting and an elder from Cambridge Friends Meeting in the United Kingdom. They join with us in prayers for compassion and healing for all those affected by the death of George Floyd and for strength to address the longstanding injustices in our society. Discussion: Friends suggested that Meeting get copies of these letters to the family of George Floyd and to the George Floyd and the memorial here in Minneapolis.
12. Meeting closed with a period of silent worship.