July 17, 2022

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

10:00 – 11:00 AM meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Lin Butler; Zoom host – Mary B

The link for Sunday worship is available by emailing office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Friday.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

The Healing Justice Program and Youth Undoing Institutional Racism Money, Power, and Re$pect – Addressing the Gun Violence Epidemic workshop and participants. The workshop goes from July 16 – 22.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS!! Your help is needed! Come to another Pergola Painting Party on Sat, July 23rd at 10AM. Ladder-holders, roller and brush-cleaners, paint bucket and tray-refillers, masking off-ers, drop-cloth spreaders and brush and roller-wielders – all are needed and welcome! Mostly outside, bring a mask to venture inside. We will be top-coating the pergola. Pizza provided for lunch. So Pergola Painting Pizza Party? Rain date is Sat, July 30, 10AM. THANK YOU to the many scrapers, brushes, rollers and ladders-holders who labored together on the 9th!

The link to mid-week worship on Wed night, 7PM, is available by emailing office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Wed.

After worship next Sunday, Sally Sudo, a Japanese-American and retired Minneapolis teacher, will talk about the discrimination that she and her family faced in Minneapolis during and after WW II. Of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were put into concentration camps during WWII, two-thirds were American citizens. Sally was six years old when she, her nine siblings, and her parents were forced to live in a concentration camp where they remained for three and a half years. They could take only what each of them could carry. Her parents stored their other belongings in their Japanese Christian church. After the war their possessions were never returned to them. Eighty percent of Japanese-American possessions, stored privately during the war, were stolen or sold by other people. It is estimated that Japanese Americans lost at least 400 million dollars worth of property. Sally will be speaking in the meetinghouse; the presentation will be available via the Zoom worship link. Discussion will follow.

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 John C 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.

People who are interested and willing to learn the new AV system at the meetinghouse are now being sought. Let Terry K or Roger M know if you are interested.

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

Interested in gardening? Meeting gardeners (currently Clifford, Betsy, and Rae Beth) meet at 6PM on the first and third Tuesdays 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.

The Police Reform Group will meet this coming and every third Tuesday night, 7PM. Kayla Richards from the MN Justice Research Center will join this facilitated discussion to give input for the consent decree. Learn more about the consent decree here. Contact Nettie or Stephen for the link. The MN Justice Research Center (MNJRC) is hosting public sessions to collect input that will shape the state’s consent decree for the Minneapolis Police Department. There are a few remaining sessions in which to participate. Dates and times are listed at https://www.mnjrc.org/events.

OPPORTUNITIES AMONG FRIENDS

WORKSHOPS, FILMS, RETREATS, PROGRAMS, PRESENTATIONS

A group of Friends is coordinating a national conversation to encourage and help enable Friends to: 1) defend truth in an age of the persistent lie; 2) work for true equity and justice for all; 3) promote free and fair elections; 4) prepare for nonviolent resistance against further erosion of political, economic and social structures that safe-guard individual rights and the rule of law. The initial conversations, hosted by Earlham School of Religion, will be Mon, July 25, 6-8PM (CT) and Sun, July 31, 2-4PM (CT). For more and to register, go to quakercall.net/ Steering Committee membership includes: Joe Volk, Executive Secretary Emeritus, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Gretchen Castle, former General Secretary Friends World Committee for Consultation, World Office and Dean of Earlham School of Religion, and Diane Randall, former General Secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Registration for Friends for a NonViolent World’s People Camp (Aug 7-13) ends July 24! People Camp is an intergenerational experience of cooperation, exploration and community living. Come rest and refresh your mind, body, and spirit through a variety of workshops, group activities and recreation. Workshops include: “Cultural Organizing for Climate Justice in the North;” “Strategies for Nonviolent Action;” “From Blame into Mourning into Love-based Action;” and “Mini AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) Training.” More here.

The most recent Friends for a NonViolent World podcast, Surviving Gun Violence; Advocating for Change, featured Jarren Peterson Dean and Shannon Johnson – who were both devastatingly impacted by gun violence. Jarren and Shannon received grants from Everytown for Gun Safety enabling them to learn how to use their experiences as a force for positive change to end gun violence. More and listen here.

VOLUNTEER

Friends Committee on National Legislation: Urge your US legislators to co-sponsor the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. Act. The act would establish the first formal commission in U.S. history to investigate and document the policies and practices of 367 federally-sponsored, faith-run institutions from the 1860s through the 1960s. This includes assimilation practices, attempted termination of cultures and languages of Indigenous peoples, and human rights violations. Read more here. For easy access to your representatives, click here.

The Northern Yearly Meeting Journal offers space where Friends can share joys, concerns, struggles, or insights that reflect Quaker faith and life. Reflections on the Annual Session or favorite Quaker theme, issues that confront your meeting or all Quakers, a letter to the editor, poetry, photos, book or film reviews that provide spiritual insights – no more than 1500 words – submit them all to nymjournal(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com by July 22. The Spring issue is available here.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Living Lightly – Play with a carbon calculator to see what areas of your life produce the most carbon emissions. Are there practical things you can stretch to do to lower your emissions? https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

Healing Minnesota Stories Sacred Site Tours will be offered July 30, 10AM – 2PM and Oct 30, 1PM – 5PM, St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Mendota Heights. Take advantage of these MN Council of Churches, open-to-the-public, tours and hear the MN history you didn’t learn in high school. Take the first step in Healing Minnesota by absorbing the sacred narratives of Minnesota places. Learn more and register.

ACTION, (A Commitment to Inclusion in Our Neighborhoods – The work of justice is not a sprint. There is no easy path to ending systemic racism. It is a relay race of generations. Be part of the church body willing to take the baton and carry it to the next step. Through the three-year ACTION Project, congregations will be lead by BIPOC facilitators to learn the history, engage in individual reflection and skill-building, and team up to shape a racially reparative future in MN. Learn more here . Watch an information session that featured ACTION alumni.

OFFICE HOURS

Carolyn VandenDolder, Meeting Coordinator, will be in the office Wed morning and 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.