March 20, 2022

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 – 10:00 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Doug Herron; Zoom host – Bill

10:15 – 11:00 Nonviolent Peaceforce in the Twin Cities: Hope for our Future. Marna Anderson and William Wallace will speak about their experience with this organization which is bringing lessons from community safety and protection work in the Global South to Minneapolis. Zoom host – Stephen

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Jane Furnas – speaker; care of meeting, Juliet Nail; Zoom host – Stephen

Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org for the link to Sunday worship and mid-morning program.

Northern Yearly Meeting will offer online first day school TODAY, 9:55-11:10AM, for children, ages 6 – 11. The lesson, Life is rising! will explore the spring equinox and customs of new beginnings. After a welcome, we’ll center by drawing plant mandalas. During introductions, children are invited to share something with seeds from their kitchen. We’ll read Spring Equinox: celebrating the greening of the Earth, then sing an NYM favorite, The Garden Song (Inch by Inch). To celebrate the equinox, we’ll make recycled newsprint seed pots and plant seeds. We’ll also make ants on a log for a snack then close with centering on Una Semilla (A Seed). Teachers: Sue and George (Milwaukee), Sita (Madison), and Marie (Eau Claire). Register here (required). Please come!

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

People around the world who are suffering from conflict, racism, colonialism, displacement, and the climate crisis, as well as the people of Ukraine and Russia, and all those who are aiding victims and the dispossessed.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: At the time of a death – How the Meeting can help. The Death and Memorial Committee will describe its role and the ways that each of us can prepare ourselves and our families for that time of decision-making.

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.

Care and Counsel Committee is making a list of those who, on occasion, would be able to bring meals or offer rides to those in need. It could be as simple as ordering pizza or other food and having it delivered. Or bring a yummy hot dish. No obligation, just let us know if we can contact you as needs come up. Email or phone Nettie Smith, C&C clerk, if you’d like to be on the list.

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Peace and Social Concerns Movie Night will feature The Burning Times, on Tues, March 22, at 7PM via Zoom. The documentary takes an in-depth look at the witch hunts that swept through Europe just a few hundred years ago, which one historian called “a holocaust of women.” Discussion will follow. Some images and descriptions may be disturbing.

FUN WITH FRIENDS: Opportunities to socialize and build community! Meet at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) next Sun, March 27, 2-4. Gather at the 3rd Street entrance lobby, beyond the information counter to meet new F(f)riends or stroll the galleries with those you haven’t seen in a while. Masks required; admission free. Reservations not necessary, but helpful. Contact Jane or David.

Ministry and Counsel Committee (M&C) asks individuals who feel led to share a prepared message or a reading during semi-programmed worship, to contact Bill or other members of M&C. M&C is also looking for closers for both worships. Serving as a closer is a ministry of service to the meeting.

An IMPORTANT MESSAGE for families from Northern Yearly Meeting! This year’s Annual Session will be virtual BUT, if there is enough interest, youth and families may have in-person programming at Lions Camp. Families with children through high school age are asked to complete a survey about your likely participation (online survey here). Please fill out the survey, even if you do not plan to attend, so that we can alert you about other children and youth activities going forward. PLEASE respond by March 31 if you are interested in the in-person Family Camp.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

VOLUNTEER

Submit creative artistic work and writing, including personal reflections and articles about your work and experiences as Quakers, to the Northern Yearly Meeting Journal, nymjournal(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com. April 2 is the deadline for the Spring Issue. The winter edition of the journal can be found here.

Friends School Plant Sale – signing up to volunteer has begun: FriendsSchoolPlantSale.com/volunteer / (651) 621-8930. The Plant Sale will be held May 6-8 at the State Fair Grandstand. Volunteers are needed – setting up, dealing with plants, dealing with people, clean-up, feeding other volunteers! Volunteers shop early! Online catalogue available here.

WORKSHOPS, FILMS, RETREATS, PROGRAMS, PRESENTATIONS

Friends General Conference Children and Youth retreat opportunities:
The Family Place – a virtual retreat for children, ages 0-5, TODAY, 2:30-4PM (CT): More here.
Virtual Retreat for Youth of Color, April 2-3: https://www.fgcquaker.org/event/virtual-retreats-for-youth-of-color/

Youth Undoing Institutional Racism, a program of the American Friends Service Committee’s St. Paul office, presents “Revolutionary Love” in honor of Women’s History month – an intergenerational panel of women in the movement discussing how they keep their drive and love for community while still embracing love in their day to day lives; via Zoom; THIS Wed, March 23rd, 5-7PM. Register here or contact YUIR at: TCYUIR(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com

The Northern Yearly Meeting Anti-Racism Working Group wants to hear how things are going in your monthly meeting, March 24, at 7PM. Share successes, barriers, and personal impacts of working to transform your corner of Quakerism into an anti-racist faith community. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Thurs. for the link.

Plan to attend Friends for a NonViolent World’s annual meeting NEXT Sat, March 26th, 9:30-11:30AM. Connect with the FNVW community, hear about the work FNVW has accomplished in 2021, welcome new board members, and help discern the direction of future programming! In person at Twin Cities Meeting (1725 Grand Ave, St. Paul); via Zoom: click here ; ID: 845 9012 4846; passcode: 904019.

American Friends Service Committee presents Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin on March 26th, at noon, honoring Bayard Rustin, human rights activist and social critic, as part of its Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival. The film will be followed by a discussion between Walter Nagle, Bayard Rustin’s partner and adopted son, and Dr. Sa’ed Atshan, Swarthmore associate professor of peace studies, currently writing a book on African American and Palestinian Quakers. Register here.

American Friends Service Committee invites Friends to its Quaker Action for a Just World: 2022 AFSC Corporation Program, April 3-7. Register to hear a panel of Quaker climate activists, workshops on key peace and justice issues, and a keynote speech from Winona LaDuke. Learn more here.

School of the Spirit Contemplative Retreat, “All Shall Be Well: Contemplation in an Age of Crisis,” will be offered Thur – Sun, April 7-10, at the Siena Center in Racine WI. For more, see: https://www.schoolofthespirit.org/ .

Friends for a NonViolent World’s most recent Everyday Nonviolence Podcast features Paula Palmer exploring the painful history of Indigenous boarding schools and examples of faith communities addressing the harm caused by them; and Eiona Street-Steward detailing a Twin Cities initiative that invites predominantly white churches to voluntarily return to Black and Indigenous communities the wealth that they accrued due to systemic inequities. Listen here.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Truth Tellers Online Film Screening and Live Q&A, THIS Thurs, March 24th, 6-8PM (CT) Maine artist and activist, Robert Shetterly, uses art to celebrate the voices of courageous past and present activists fighting for racial equity, environmental justice, and indigenous rights. Free, but contributions will be gratefully received to support The Wabanaki Alliance, one of the local efforts spotlighted in the Truth Tellers movie. Register here.

Mixed Blood Theatre has a world premiere play coming up in April called “imagine a u.s. without racism”. The play was born out of 100 interviews with strangers across the 50 United States starting with the prompt, “Imagine a U.S. without racism. The result is a ground-breaking play that offers concrete actions for individuals to greatly dilute the isms that plague America. More at https://mixedblood.com/imagine-a-u-s-without-racism/

The Minnesota Council of NonProfits will offer Collective Healing: Breaking the Cycle of White Supremacy, online, April 29, May 6, and 13, 9:30AM-Noon. Highly interactive, participants will collectively look at how to break the cycle of white supremacy and take practical, sustained action towards equity. Learn to see how white supremacy shows up in people, organizations, systems, and self. In-between sessions, participants will put into practice what they are learning and connect action to personal experience, including their work environment and relationships. Learn more here.

OFFICE HOURS

Carolyn VandenDolder, the Meeting Coordinator, will be in the office Wed – Fri afternoons. Phone messages checked daily; email checked W-F. Bulletin deadline, noon Thur. Bulletin items can be phoned in to the office (612-926-6159) or emailed (office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org).