August 15, 2021

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

10:00 – 11:00 AM meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, John Dunham

Sunday worship in August: email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Thurs for the link.
By phone: you will lack video but will be able to hear and speak: (651-372-8299. ID and password above.)

It’s easy to be in worship for as long as you are able. Consider inviting the youth of the meeting to participate!

THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

Friends are asked to wear a mask when others are present at the meetinghouse. If you are gathering with a committee, wear masks in common spaces (hallways, landings, stairways, kitchen.) Your committee may decide together whether to continue masking once in your meeting space.

Several Friends have inquired about the section at Lakewood Cemetery owned by Minneapolis Meeting, where members of the meeting have been buried for 150 years. There are empty plots still available for members of the meeting if they wish to reserve a space as part of their end-of-life planning. Linda will lead a tour of the “Quaker section” at Lakewood Cemetery at 2PM TODAY. She will have maps and information on the available plots. Those who are interested should meet in front of Lakewood Chapel just inside the cemetery entrance on 36th Street.

Yearning to gather even if we’re not yet worshiping at the meetinghouse? Come to an outdoor get-together, Mon night, August 23rd, 7PM at Beards Plaisance, the pavilion above Lake Harriet at Upton and 46th. Bring your own chair, snack, and drink (NOT a potluck!) and share with each other how we’ve been this past year. If it is raining or there is an air quality warning, gather on August 30th, same place, same time.

Planned vocal ministry: Take the opportunity to nurture and encourage each other! If you think someone has a message for the meeting community, recommend them to Ministry and Counsel Committee or encourage them to speak with someone from M&C themselves. Likewise, if you feel you have been given a message to share, contact Bill so a Sunday may be made available to you.

OPPORTUNITIES TO CONNECT WITH MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

There is mid-week worship every Wed night, 7PM. There will be a brief reading at the beginning of worship on the first and third Weds. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Wed for the link.

Interested in gardening? Meeting gardeners (currently Clifford, Betsy, Sarah, and Rae Beth) meet at 6:30PM on the first and third Mondays of the month, June – Sept, at the meetinghouse. Come when you can for satisfying fun playing in the dirt, fabulous people and lots of laughs. Questions? Contact Clifford.

Loaves and Fishes, Mon, August 30th: Join other metro-area Friends, the Ismaili Community and the Mayim Rabim congregation to provide a meal at Holy Rosary Church in S Mpls, 2424 – 18th Ave S. Prepare dinner (2-4:30); pack up and hand out the meals (4:45-6:30,) or clean up (5:30-7.) Fruit donations needed. Covid-19 has created more need and fewer volunteers (and fruit donations.) Email Sue to sign up for a shift to make sure there is sufficient space or to arrange to drop off fruit. Masks, gloves, and hats required. This remains a COVID risk. Sign up to come if you can!

From Friends Committee on National Legislation: the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently voted for repeal of the 1991 (Gulf War) and 2002 (Iraq) Authorizations for the Use of Military Force joint resolution! The measure will go to the Senate floor and has bipartisan support. Please send emails thanking Senators Smith (here) and Klobuchar (here) for their co-sponsorship of the bill, and ask them to encourage the Senate leadership to bring it forward. Questions: Contact Jim H. More about the repeal and FCNL here.

OPPORTUNITIES TO CONNECT WITH OTHER FRIENDS

Help prepare for the next cohort of Quaker Voluntary Service Fellows! There are cleaning shifts on August 14, 15, 22, 28 and 29; a need for meals for the first week of September as well as some household items (like pillow cases, washcloths and hand towels) are also sought. Email Mary Ellen to sign up. Contact Jane F or Carolyn with questions. Meet this year’s cohort at https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/minneapolis/

Eau Claire Meeting invites Northern Yearly Meeting Friends to a Nonviolence Action Training workshop on August 20-21 (Fri night through all day Sat). By the end of the ten-hour workshop, participants will have begun to:
1) learn principles of nonviolence and how to apply them strategically in their lives
2) learn some verbal de-escalation techniques and
3) learn how to plan nonviolent protests and interactions.
Eau Claire Friends are offering this opportunity to the wider community to broaden the effect of the work. Sat lunch will be provided by local Quakers and Muslims; Sat supper provided as well. Eau Claire Friends will try to organize hospitality for those out-of-town Friends wishing to attend. The full schedule, additional information, and registration can be found at http://ecquakers.org/article/nonviolence-training

Pendle Hill offers workshops and retreats throughout the year. Check out pendlehill.org to keep abreast of opportunities. Upcoming events include: Pendle Hill’s Reading Group (Worship: The Gathered Meeting Revisited) Sept 8 and Quaker Caregiving In Times of Crisis Sept 10-12

Marcelle Martin is offering an online workshop, Exploring Spiritual Practices, Tuesday nights, Sept – Nov. More at: https://lu.ma/exploring-spiritual-practices?tk=oCGgUF . Marcelle is author of Our Life is Love: the Quaker Spiritual Journey (Inner Light Books, 2016) and a member of Swarthmore Monthly Meeting (PA). She has led workshops at Quaker meetings and retreat centers across the country, including Pendle Hill and School of the Spirit, with a call to help nurture the spiritual vitality and radical faithfulness of Friends and Quakerism today.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Enbridge’s Line 3 is expected to be completed by the end of this month. Environmental organizations in Minnesota and around the country urge action before completion. Tremendous environmental destruction and disregard of treaties have occurred constructing Line 3. Use of Line 3 puts in jeopardy one fifth of the earth’s freshwater and risks contaminating key waterways. Read more at https://www.honorearth.org/stop_line_3 . Send a postcard or email, or use the following e-forms to ask President Biden and Army Corps of Engineers Commissioner Jamie Pinkham to stop construction on Line 3, continue further conversation with the Anishinaabe and further investigation of environmental impact: stopline3.org/pinkham ; stopline3.org/biden ; https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/write-or-call/.

On August 25th (2-5PM,) water protectors will converge with others on the State Capitol, demanding from our elected officials the immediate cancellation of Line 3. More at: https://www.facebook.com/events/148731610704832

OFFICE HOURS

Carolyn VandenDolder, Meeting Coordinator, will be in the office Wed, Thurs and Fri, afternoons. Phone messages checked daily. Bulletin deadline, noon Thur. Phone items in to the office (612-926-6159), email (office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org), or write and put in the bulletin file of the blue box.