October 18, 2020

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 – 10:00 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Keitha Herron

10:15 – 11:00 Joe Mueller, Friends School of Minnesota’s Head of School. Hear the latest from Friends School of Minnesota – school planning in a time of COVID, the decision-making processes for the 2020-21 school year and the road ahead.

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Ranae Hanson- speaker; care of meeting, Heidi Flores

Sing an ancient story / oh, what joy we’d find! / Each dwells in its glory, / Fierce and wise and kind.
We are meshed among them, / Tree and bee and vine, / Beings are all equals/ On this fertile earth sublime.
–Attempted re-write of a childhood song

Worship and mid-morning program through October’s end: email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Friday for the link.

First day school for youth: email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Friday for the link.

THINGS TO KNOW

SAVE THE DATE: Christopher Sammond will be offering a workshop for Minneapolis Friends to deepen our connection to each other and to the Divine. Offered twice: Feb 12, 13 and 21 and Feb 19, 20 and 21. Space limited to 25 per workshop. More details to come; reserve time on your calendar for one of these enriching, community-building opportunities.

It will be here before you know it – the (virtual) Friends for a NonViolent World Holiday Fair! Shop online in late Nov; pick up items Dec 4 and 5. Put your creative crafting energy to work or make soups, chili, and brownies! (No used books this year.) Sign up online at signupgenius.com/go/805054FAEAB28A6FB6-fnvw1. FNVW offers Bridging the Divide, Policing that Works for Everyone; the Everyday NonViolence Podcast; and People Camp, and supports the Alternatives to Violence Project in MN prisons and local communities.

Need to schedule a Zoom meeting for a committee meeting or Minneapolis Meeting activity? Please send a request, including date, time, and purpose to office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to have it set up.

OPPORTUNITIES TO CONNECT WITH MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: My Journey, as a Black Man, to the Religious Society of Friends. Chester McCoy is a beloved friend and was a member of Minneapolis Meeting for decades before his move to Maryland.

There is mid-week worship every Wed night, 7PM. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Wed for the link.

Experience thirty minutes of worship sharing on a Quaker reading: 11:25AM Wed. Contact Stephen for the link.

There will be an Experiment with Light, meditation, open to the entire Meeting, focusing specifically on our nation and on the election on Oct. 30th, 7PM. Consider coming to hold us, our state and our country in prayer and the Light: email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org for the link. For more about Experiment with Light, see: https://www.experiment-with-light.org.uk/index.htm

OPPORTUNITIES TO CONNECT WITH OTHER FRIENDS

Save the date for Northern Yearly Meeting fall interim session online Oct 23-24. Details at https://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/northern-yearly-meeting/events/nym-fall-2020-interim-session

Right Sharing of World’s Resources is offering The Power of Enough, an online workshop exploring new perspectives of a right relationship with our world through queries, storytelling, sharing and singing; Oct 22 – Nov 19. Limited to 24, more at https://www.rswr.org/project/power-enough

Friends General Conference is offering a See No Stranger book discussion, (meets weekly, started Oct 13th) and Understanding & Healing White Supremacy, Oct 25-Nov 20. More at www.FGCquaker.org/eretreats.

Northern Yearly Meeting monthly Anti-Racism discussion group is focusing on the podcast, “Seeing White” (https://www.sceneonradio.org/episode-38-skulls-and-skins-seeing-white-part-8/.) The next meeting is 7PM, Oct 22nd at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87001475064?pwd=a1VrUnVPZ0lnLzI2d1pBSmM3OXBxQT09
Meeting ID: 870 0147 5064; Passcode: 476244 . (Seeing White, being viewed and discussed at by staff and parents of Friends School, is highly recommended by them!)

The most recent Northern Yearly Meeting Journal, published quarterly, offers reflections, personal insights and testimonies from the work or experience of area Quakers. Find it at https://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/northern-yearly-meeting/resources/nym-journal-21-summer-fall-2020. If you are aware of a Friend with gifts to be a Layout Artist, the NYM Journal is looking for one! Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to be put in touch with the Nominating Committee.

Scattergood Friends School seeks a host family for Hussain Kooshan from Kabul Afghanistan. Hosts offer travel to and from school, and a home and meals during breaks (Nov 21-Feb 28; June 1-college) and authorize urgent medical care when parents are not contactable (uncommon.) A host family in Linden Hills would be ideal as Hussain has a schoolmate who will be in the neighborhood. Learn more from Sonja: ssponheim(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)scattergood.org / 651-659-9340.

Friends Committee on National Legislation’s October Quaker Changemaker Event, Quakers Changing Government. How have Quakers influenced our government, historically and today? Where does the call to lobby for peace and justice come from? What do those origins have to say to Friends carrying concerns today? Quaker writer and speaker Margery Post Abbott (Multnomah Friends Meeting) will speak about her exploration of the historically complex relationship between Quakers, the law, and government. She will also consider what that history offers to Friends wrestling with witness in today’s world. Register to join this Quaker Changemaker conversation on Wed, Oct. 21 at 5:30 PM (CDT).

Register by October 16: Friends Committee on National Legislation (virtual) Annual Meeting. Antiracism will be a major focus of FCNL’s Annual Meeting (Nov 14-17) as we gather to conduct worshipful business and lobby for the Justice in Policing Act (H.R. 7120/S.3912). Register here to act in faith and feel Spirit weave us together.

Choose Democracy: What to do if there is a Coup – George Lakey facilitated an online meeting sponsored by several Baltimore Quaker groups, posted here. Articles by Lakey posted here. George Lakey’s Pendle Hill lecture, “Can Quakers Help Prevent an American Slide Into Dictatorship?” is posted here.
Also, Eileen Flanigan has adapted key concepts from Lakey’s presentations and work into a 90-minute online course, “Finding Your Role in this Moment of Social Change.” More here. Additional initiatives: https://mailchi.mp/nonviolencenews.org/nonviolence-news-oct-seven

OFFICE HOURS

Carolyn VandenDolder, the interim Meeting Coordinator, will be in the office Wed – Fri, 11:00-4. Phone messages checked daily. Bulletin deadline, noon Thur. Phone messages checked daily; email checked Wed – Fri.