January, 2023

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 – 10:00 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Sandy Olson; Zoom host – Rae Beth

10:15 – 11:00 Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery: Hear from some of the Right Relationship with Indigenous People group about their experience, learning, and thoughts around the Doctrine of Discovery and discuss what the Meeting needs in order to consider a minute repudiating the Doctrine – the original validation for subjugation, theft, de-humanization, and extermination of non-White, non-Christians. Zoom host – Rae Beth

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Jill Frew – speaker; Tom Wells – musician; care of meeting, Barbara Ziegenhagen; Zoom host – Stephen

Need the link for worship? Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

People around the world who are grieving or suffering from conflict, racism, colonialism, displacement, loss, and the climate crisis, and all those who are aiding victims and the dispossessed.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

We’ve heard from members of the Meeting that it might be time to change to a masks optional posture in order to be more visible to each other, and more welcoming and visible to visitors and newcomers to the Meeting. This will be an agenda item in the February Monthly Meeting for Business and we ask you to prayerfully, with the Light, consider this change.

It’s snow and slush season. Help keep the meetingroom floor in good shape by clearing snow, debris, and wet from your footware before you leave the entryway and go upstairs. There are paper towels by the hallway sink if you notice pools forming by your feet. Thanks, Friends!

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: Helping One Another Up with a Tender Hand. Participants will be invited to candidly discuss how their life has been this past year, how they have been called to care for others, who has been there for them, and other ways we as a meeting could assist each other. Offered by the Care and Counsel Committee.

Minneapolis Friends Monthly Meeting is seeking a Children and Families Coordinator to manage religious educational activities, outreach, and training for ministry to youth and families for Minneapolis Meeting. This is a part-time annual position, estimated at 10-15 hours per week (negotiable), with an hourly wage of $25/hour to start. Interested candidates should have some experience organizing activities/planning events with children, teenagers and adults, a commitment to nonviolent practices, a valid driver’s license, and schedule flexibility, with a commitment to working on Sundays. Additional qualifications including enthusiasm for the participation of diverse youth and families in the life of the Meeting and a demonstrated spiritual life, as well as information about the position can be found at: https://minneapolisfriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Children-and-Families-Coordinator-job-description.pdf. Please submit a resume, cover letter, and contact information from three professional references to: Children/Family Coordinator Hiring Committee, Minneapolis Friends Meeting, office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Share this announcement broadly!

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

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.

Every winter, Minneapolis Meeting takes a special collection, outside the regular operating budget, to benefit organizations approved at monthly meeting. The recipient of this year’s Winter Gift be the Minnesota Council of Churches Refugee Services (http://www.mnchurches.org/what-we-do/refugee-services). To make a contribution, write checks to Minneapolis Meeting with “Winter Gift” in the memo line. Contributions can be made through the end of Jan.

Monthly Meeting approved a Trustee’s matching gift for individual contributions made to Thee Quaker Project, an exciting new podcast. Make checks out to MFM Trustees and put “Thee Quaker Project” in the memo line until Jan 30th to get the match. Thee Quaker Project has a matching gift opportunity of its own through this spring. So for every $10 you give, $40 will go to Thee Quaker Project, building a 21st century Quaker media project.

Loaves and Fishes: 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. on Jan 30th. 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 K. to sign up for a shift or to arrange to drop off fruit. Masks, gloves, and hair covering required. Sign up to come if you can!

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

The Welcoming and Outreach Committee will arrange Friendly Meals fellowship if there is sufficient interest. There could be two kinds of Friendly Meals:
1. In person – those who sign up are grouped and meet for a potluck meal in the home of an assigned host in February, March and April. Each meal in the three months would have different people and different hosts. If you sign up for this choice of Friendly Meals, you agree to be a host for one of the 3 meals on a date of your choosing, but preferably in February, March or April. We need to have at least 10 – 12 people participate (couples or significant others would be counted as 1 for the numbers needed, but as 2 people if we can organize the meals).
2. Friendly Meals via Zoom would be arranged in groups of 5 or 6. Participants would each make their own meal and eat and converse on Zoom at a specified time. We need to have at least 10 to 12 participate.
More information will be sent to you if you are interested in signing up. Please email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org if you are interested in one of the versions listed above, stating which version you are interested in.

Come to Lectio Divina via Zoom, on Tuesdays at noon! We will hold a short reading from the Bible, Quaker, or other spiritual texts to see if and how it might speak to us today, followed by a time of worship-sharing. Recently we have been offering passages from Friends’ writings that help us understand the Quaker approach to worship. Contact Stephen for the link.

At a recent mid-morning program, descriptions of the various small group focused on supporting our individual spiritual journeys were offered. If you are interested in Experiment with Light groups or spiritual nurture groups, email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to be put in touch with the organizer; links to Lectio Divina and mid-week worship appear (almost) weekly in the bulletin. Other small groups might be forming, including the Watson Reading Group, a Telling My Story Group, and a Spirituality and Movement Group.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

WORSHIP

Quaker Earthcare Witness and Friends General Conference will host a time of worship sharing this Thurs, Jan 26th, 7PM (CT) Worship share in small groups, respond to queries, explore our experiences, and share. Register here. Come for spiritual support and connection for those engaged in environmental work and witness.

VOLUNTEER

Be the change! Friends for a NonViolent World is fueled by Volunteers. If you are looking to join a team of engaged and passionate people working to make real change, there is a place for you at FNVW! Especially sought: Everyday Nonviolence Podcast Producer; Everyday Nonviolence Podcast Editor, Event Planner, Volunteer Engagement Team Member, Alternatives to Violence Workshop Facilitator, Advocacy and Outreach Team Member. Complete the online interest form so someone from FNVW can follow-up with you: https://default.salsalabs.org/T5a4f5d6e-588e-4e08-a251-92c0f62c2f79/b2dba806-8d6b-4084-9ed3-ac3e130b83ae

Raise the visibility of Friends for a NonViolent World by following it on social media! Like FNVW’s facebook page and share its posts: www.facebook.com/FriendsNVW; follow FNVW on instagram: @friendsnvw; subscribe to FNVW’s YouTube channel: Friends for a NonViolent World

WORKSHOPS, FILMS, RETREATS, PROGRAMS, PRESENTATIONS

Friends for a NonViolent World new online resources and info:
* the Everyday Nonviolence Podcast – https://fnvw.podbean.com/ . In the newest episode: host Jarren Peterson Dean and guest Peter Digitale Anderson explore the moral values and beliefs that guided MLK’s life and activism. Each short episode in this series features one of the six Principles of Kingian Nonviolence and includes queries for reflection.
* the 2023-25 Strategic Plan – https://default.salsalabs.org/T84f07470-8020-42ab-a46d-4c88917474d3/b2dba806-8d6b-4084-9ed3-ac3e130b83ae
* calendar and upcoming events page of the website: https://default.salsalabs.org/T0755cf0f-42ae-4733-9bc6-f8616a2d5a9b/b2dba806-8d6b-4084-9ed3-ac3e130b83ae

Friends Committee on National Legislation will host Welcome the 118th Congress with Action on Tue, Jan 24th, 7PM(CT). Join FCNL’s advocacy experts to discuss strategy to advance key bills this year and how to use the Feb congressional recess when lawmakers return home to their districts and states. Despite partisanship and division, there are real opportunities for progress on peace and justice legislation in 2023. Come be a participant! RSVP at: https://act.fcnl.org/go/135858?t=22&akid=28997%2E80270%2EOFJj4e

Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) invites you to “Becoming the Quakers the World Needs.” How is FWCC relevant to modern Quakers and global Quakerism? How you could be a part of important witness? Jan 28th, 3-4:30PM(CT). Hosted by Chuck Schobert (Madison Meeting) and Marybeth Neal (recently of Twin Cities Meeting) for Northern Yearly Meeting Friends. Learn more and register here.

Northern Yearly Meeting Technology Consultation: Blended/hybrid/virtual meetings, Jan 29th, 2–4PM. What have we learned in the past year? What is our work going forward? Let’s get together again now that we’ve had another year to develop our practices and technology. We will share successes and challenges and have small group time to explore solutions: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83615173228?pwd=WFRKNnVFSENmb08yTkFDM2Z0RU5kZz09 ; ID: 836 1517 3228; Passcode: 188324.

The Black Quaker Project is sponsoring the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival and Forum, Feb 4-April 8. Films will be shown online, followed by commentary and discussion, every other Sat afternoon. Registration required, in advance, for each film to receive the Zoom link. Film subjects: Bill Suherland, Joan Countryman and African Americans in Quaker Schools, Sarah Mapps Douglass and Women in the Abolition Struggle Against Slavery, Benjamin Banneker, and Paul Robeson, celebrating his 125th birthday. Register at this link for each film.

Friends Peace Teams will offer Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change – toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, an interactive online workshop, co-facilitated by Ranae Hanson, on Feb 11th, 1-3(CT) for high school students and adults. Learn the real history of this country through the voices of Indigenous people, Euro-American colonists, and historians and understand why this history matters to all of us today. Learn to build relationships based on truth, respect and justice. Register at https://friendspeaceteams.org/upcoming-events/ .

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Living Lightly – The fashion industry has a devastating impact on the planet, and the most vulnerable workers in the fashion system are often at disproportionate risk of experiencing these impacts first-hand. Throughout the entire fashion supply chain, natural resources are extracted, habitats are exploited, toxic emissions are produced, water is polluted and waste is carelessly dumped. Scrutinize the brands you buy, including information about materials, packaging, waste and labor practices in your purchase decision. This CNN article offers a list of climate-friendly brands: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/fashion/best-sustainable-clothing-brands. And remember, the most sustainable garment is the one you already own! So extend the life of your clothes for as long as possible!

OFFICE HOURS

The Meeting Coordinator will be out of the office until Feb 10th. Phone messages will be checked daily. Email will be checked on Thursdays. 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).