August 21, 2022

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

10:00 – 11:00 AM meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Carol Bechtel; Zoom host – Bill Hendricks

Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Friday for the link to Sunday worship.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

The family and friends of Alice Bell. Alice, faithful, cherished member of Minneapolis Meeting since 1954, died August 5th. The tentative date for her memorial service is October 16th. Her obituary can be read here.

The St. Paul office of the American Friends Service Committee. Brynne is the new interim director.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

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

Clean, polish, wash, scrub – make the meetinghouse shine, again!! Your help is needed and will be greatly appreciated Sunday, August 21, after worship. Dive into the joy of working together and caring for our space by cleaning windows, cobwebs, chairs, buggy light fixtures, elevator shaft and maybe the exhaust hood, etc. It’s been a while since we have cleaned these, so come in your coveralls, ready to use some elbow grease! We will open windows as best we can, but masks will be a must. Rags and other cleaning items supplied; plan to do a few windows or group of chairs before heading home! Cookies likely; coordinated by the Property Committee.

Come savor the last days of summer and enjoy the sweet company of Friends and neighbors at an ice cream social on the front lawn after the rise of worship, August 28th! Hosted by the Welcoming and Outreach Committee.

Loaves and Fishes August 29th: Join other metro-area Friends, the Ismaili Community and the Mayim Rabim congregation to provide a nutritious meal at Holy Rosary Church in S Mpls, 2424 – 18th Ave S. There are three shifts to cover the tasks of the meal: meal prep (2-3:30PM); burrito assembly and handing out the meals (4:15-5:30PM,) and clean up (5:15-6:30PM.) Fruit donations, dropped off at Holy Rosary after 2:00, are needed as well. Email Sue K to sign up for a shift to make sure there is sufficient space or to arrange to drop off fruit. Masks, hair covering as well as closed-toe shoes required. This remains a COVID risk. Sign up to come if you can!

HEADS UP! The school year schedule will begin on September 18th: 9AM, worship (unprogrammed); 10:15AM, mid-morning program; 11:15AM, worship (semi-programmed).

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.

David W. would love to hear from you! He enjoys getting cards in the mail. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org for his current address.

The Quaker Voluntary Service house needs attention before the new Fellows arrive! Are you available to help clean, organize and make the house welcoming over the next two weeks? Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to be put in touch with Local Support Committee Clerk, Mary Ellen, and learn about work crew options. (A crew, open to anyone available, will be moving some furniture Sat afternoon, Aug 20th.) ALSO NEEDED, dinners for the two new Fellows, Robie and Elsa, (vegetarian or pescatarian,) delivered to the house on Sept 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. Sign up with Mary Ellen. Read more about QVS at https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/.

OPPORTUNITIES AMONG FRIENDS

WORKSHOPS, FILMS, RETREATS, PROGRAMS, PRESENTATIONS

Quaker Earthcare Witness will offer Ecological Grief: Engaging with the Emotional Impacts of Climate Change with Gayle Matson and Hayley Hathaway this Thurs, Aug 25th, 6-7:30PM (CT). This 90-minute experiential workshop will begin the exploration of your ecological-grief—what it is, how to engage with it, and why it’s important. Identify those tender places in our own hearts where ecological grief dwells and offer them sacred attention. Learn more and register here.

Friends for a NonViolent World offers an online Alternatives to Violence Project workshop, Fri, Sept 23 – Sun, Sept 25th. You’ll discover your power to build safer communities and transform conflict and frustration in your life – all in the context of a supportive community. For more about AVP and to register, click here.

Nurturing Faithfulness, a nine-month faith and leadership program (Sept 10, 2022 – May 22, 2023,) will be offered by New England Yearly Meeting, Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center, and the Beacon Hill Friends House, with core teachers Hilary Burgin and Marcelle Martin. Applications are being accepted now. Learn more at this link.

Coming up at Pendle Hill: Opening to the Heart of Worship, the workshop done by Christopher Sammond, will be offered Sept 30- Oct 2 at Pendle Hill. Explore how to better prepare for worship, how to center down, how to listen to one another with our whole being – body, mind, and spirit – and how to better open to each other and the Divine during worship. Create a sense of community from which we can access our individual and collective wellsprings of the Source. Friends’ Decision-Making and Clerking: Participating in Meetings for Business with Joy and Confidence will be offered Nov 18-20 at Pendle Hill. This is an opportunity for new and experienced clerks to meet and thing together about the role of presiding clerk. Bring new energy and enthusiasm for clerking, feeling well-grounded in both the theoretical and the practical, as you return to your home meeting. More about these and other upcoming opportunities here. Financial help is available from Pendle Hill and from Minneapolis Meeting’s travel fund.

VOLUNTEER

The snow might not yet be in the air, but planning has already begun for the 2022 Friends for a NonViolent World Holiday Fair Fundraiser and Social Event! FNVW would love your assistance in gathering the following items to sell at the fair this winter: handmade crafts, donated services, used books, Quaker treasures, desserts, donated items from local businesses. Sign up here to help: FNVW Holiday Fair Donations Form. Interested in being on the Holiday Fair Planning Committee? Contact leah(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)fnvw.org.

Friends Committee on National Legislation:
1) Urge your US legislators to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. Act and support subpoena power of the Commission. 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.
2) Tell Congress: Resist Wasteful Spending on the Pentagon and Nuclear Weapons. More and take action at this link.
3) Urge Sens. Klobuchar and Smith to cosponsor and vote for S.J.Res. 10 to repeal the 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force. Thanks to the dedicated lobbying of FCNL Advocacy Teams and many others, the House has voted to repeal the law that sent us to war in Iraq. Now action is needed in the Senate to end this war authorization to help prevent new, unauthorized wars. Link here for more.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Living Lightly – About a quarter of all residential energy consumption is used on devices in idle power mode. That means that our collective devices that are “off” or in standby or sleep mode can use up to the equivalent of 50 large power plants’ worth of electricity. Overall electricity production represents about 37 percent of all climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions in the US. Learn more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/science/just-how-much-power-do-your-electronics-use-when-they-are-off.html and https://www.starenergypartners.com/blog/renewable-energy/6-appliances-that-use-energy-even-when-turned-off/

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.