February 19, 2023

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 – 10:00 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Carol Bechtel; Zoom host – Bill Hendricks

10:15 – 11:00 What Does It Mean to be a Quaker? – part two of the three-part exploration offered by the Ministry and Counsel Committee. What threads from your previous faith history and Light experience do you bring to the Meeting? How does this impact your experience of, or interaction with, the Meeting? Small group discussion facilitated by Jane Furnas, Mary Bosserman, and Lolly Lijewski. Zoom host – Mary Bosserman

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): reader – Ellen Swanson; Dave Bostrom – musician; care of meeting, Sarah McClellan; Zoom host – Mary Bosserman

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

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: Meeting Life. Come share in small groups around these topics:
1. What gifts / strengths do you see in each other or do you see in yourself?
2. Can participation in a committee / working group feed your spiritual life or encourage your gifts to flourish? Have you experienced that, here or elsewhere? Back in a large group, we will consider: What committees or work of the Meeting seems essential to you? Where should the Meeting focus its energy and attention? Offered by the Nominating Committee.

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.

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.

Thee Quaker Project update: Individuals contributed a total of $917 for Jon Watt’s new Thee Quaker Project. The matching contribution from the Trustees brings the amount donated from Minneapolis Meeting to $1834. That total will be matched by an anonymous Thee Quaker Project supporter, so our contribution will mean $3668 for the project! Thank you to all who donated! Welcoming and Outreach Committee recommended the matching gift, and Monthly Meeting approved it, in December.

Quaker Voluntary Service has two program Fridays each month. Could you provide a vegetarian lunch for three on March 3, 17, or 31? Sign up with Miranda, QVS Local Coordinator: miranda(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)quakervoluntaryservice.org. Also check with Miranda if you are interested in joining her and the two Fellows, Robie and Elsa, for the lunch you provide! THANK YOU, Friends, for this gesture of care and support.

Minneapolis 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. 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. Attenders and members of MFM are encouraged to share this announcement broadly!

An index of the monthly meeting decisions of the past forty years is now available for interested F(f)riends. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to have it emailed to you.

Need to schedule a Zoom meeting for a committee meeting or Minneapolis Meeting activity? Please send a request, including date, time, and purpose to office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to have it set up.

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

Have some Fun with Friends next Sun, Feb. 26th! Gather in front of the elevators at the north end of the main floor of the historic Landmark Center (St. Paul) at 1:30PM. We’ll decide which music, dance, exhibitions, galleries, and museums to explore on arrival. Masks are required for some offerings. Questions, contact Jane.

The Watson Reading Group will resume meeting on Feb 28th and every fourth Tues of the month, 7-8:30PM via Zoom. We will take turns reading aloud from Karen Armstrong’s Sacred Nature. We will save the last half hour for discussion and a brief meditation. Participants will each need to obtain a copy of the book. If you have interest in joining and have not expressed it already, please let John D know.

A group of MFM F(f)riends plan to visit the Hocokata Ti public exhibit in Shakopee on March 1 at 1PM. The exhibit “Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake” provides visitors with a cultural experience that enhances their knowledge of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and history. This is about a people telling their own story. Contact Nettie if you’d like to be a part of the outing!

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

VOLUNTEER

The Northern Yearly Meeting Journal is published 2-3 times/year. Friends are encouraged to submit creative artistic work and writing, including personal reflections and articles about your work and experiences as Quakers to nymjournal(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com. Submission deadline for the Spring Issue is March 31st. The NYM Journal is available on the Northern Yearly Meeting Website at About > Publications and includes an inspiring article by Pamela Minden, Friends Committee on National Legislation’s Midwest Regional Anchor, and Northern Yearly Meeting’s recorded minutes on gun violence, renouncing the Doctrine of Discovery, and in support of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools.

Friends School of MN Plant Sale Volunteer Sign Up has started! The Friends School Plant Sale (the largest in the country!) is an incredibly important part of our school life and a very important fundraiser for our school. It takes over a thousand volunteers to make the plant sale happen. Volunteers come from all over the Twin Cities to perform jobs at all skill levels. For more and to sign up to help, click here. And remember – volunteers get to shop first! Not ready to commit to getting over to St. Paul? Thousands of newspaper plastic sleeves are needed for the bulbs sale. There will be a collection box at the meetinghouse.

WORKSHOPS, FILMS, RETREATS, PROGRAMS, PRESENTATIONS

Quaker Earthcare Witness will offer Banking on our Future with Third Act, Feb 22nd, 1PM (CT). Come learn more about Third Act and the March 21 Day of Action. Third Act is building a community of experienced Americans over the age of sixty determined to change the world for the better. Together, they use life experience, skills and resources to build a better tomorrow. Kathy Barnhart from Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting is a volunteer with Third Act – she will share the connection between finance and climate activism and how to get involved in your community. Click here to register.

Faith Vigil for Peace in Ukraine, Fri, Feb 24, 1:30PM(CT). Pray together and lament the human harm caused by violence and conflict. Prayers will be offered for the people of Ukraine, Russia, and across the region, and for those displaced, and for a peaceful resolution to the crisis that prevents further human suffering. Organized by Friends Committee on National Legislation and The Episcopal Church; more at https://www.fcnl.org/events/faith-vigil-peace-ukraine-0

Friends for a NonViolent World will offer an Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) Virtual Workshop: In the context of a supportive community, you’ll discover your power to build safer communities and transform conflict and frustration in your life! Mar 3, 4, 9, and 11. Register at this link. More at https://www.fnvw.org/avp.

Save the date: Northern Yearly Meeting (NYM) Spring Interim Session, March 10-11. This will be a blended session with the in-person gathering at Madison Friends Meetinghouse.

Save the date: The 2023 Friends General Conference Gathering, Listen So That We May LIVE, will be July 2-8 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR. Plenaries will be hybrid – available in person and online.

The Friends Publishing Corporation’s new podcast, Quakers Today, has a new episode exploring: How has your view of Jesus, God, or religion changed since you were young? Listen here. And for an upcoming episode, what are your thoughts and feelings about virtual online communities or worship? Share your response by calling 317-QUAKERS (317-782-5377), and you might find yourself included in next month’s podcast!

The Elizabeth Ann Bogert Memoral Fund for the Study and Practice of Christian Mysticism, administered by the Friends World Committee for Consultation, makes annual grants of up to $1000. See more about the grant program and application process on the long bulletin board or go to https://scholarships.gtu.edu/fwcc-grants-for-the-study-and-practice-o-christian-mysticism/ Application deadline is March 1. Diane B and Patricia J have both received grants in the past.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Middle East Peace Now will offer Neoliberal Apartheid and Imperial Policing Sat, Feb 25 10-11:30AM. As apartheid becomes a popular framework for analyzing Palestine/Israel today, a look at the limits of liberation in “post-apartheid” South Africa challenges us rethink the definition of what apartheid is and when it ends. Against the dominant definition of apartheid, the radical wing of the South African liberation movement offered an alternative understanding of apartheid as a system of racial capitalism. Rethinking apartheid with this lens helps us understand extreme inequality, racialized poverty, and militarized policing in South Africa, Palestine/Israel, and the United States today. Because neoliberal apartheid regimes are highly unstable social formations, policing becomes ever more essential to the maintenance of social order. Professor Andy Clarno analyzes the policing in Johannesburg, Jerusalem, and Chicago by tracing the circulation of knowledge and technology through networks of private and state security forces that coordinate to protect the powerful by policing the racialized poor. Andy Clarno is associate professor of Sociology and Black Studies and coordinator of the Policing in Chicago Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994 (University of Chicago Press 2017). Register today!

OFFICE HOURS

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).