April 2, 2023

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

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

10:15 – 11:00 How and When to Use the Meeting’s Automatic External Defibrillator. This will be an overview of the AED, exploring how it works and reviewing steps to follow in an emergency. This is intended as an informational session to familiarize everyone with the AED, not a hands-on training in its use or in giving CPR. It is a chance to ask questions about what to do if someone collapses in the meeting house. Zoom host – Stephen

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Nettie Smith – speaker; Dave Bostrom – musician; care of meeting, Mary Gochnauer; Zoom host – Stephen

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

The truth is our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. ~ M.Scott Peck

Bring a bag lunch and drink and / or potluck fingerfood and linger with F(f)riends after the rise of semi-programmed worship TODAY! A couple of tables will be set up in the meetingroom. Pull up a chair!

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

The Meeting’s service and fiscal year ended on March 31. Any time is a good time to say thank you to one another for the seen and unseen work and ministry Friends do within and on behalf of the Meeting. For your time, your care, the lending of your gifts to committee work, and for your financial support, thank you.

Monthly meeting for business will be next Sunday, 9:45-11:15. On the agenda, additional nominations from the Nominating Committee (including Stephen S as presiding clerk; Jeannette R as recording clerk)

Ministry and Counsel Committee is again working on the State of the Society report. If you would like to send a sentence or more regarding your experience of Meeting this past year, please do! Send an email to Mary B.

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.

Friends Committee on National Legislation is beginning a process to reconsider the organization’s policy on abortion. The current statement in the World We Seek notes: “Members of the Society of Friends are not in unity on abortion issues. Therefore, FCNL takes no position and does not act either for or against abortion legislation. On occasion, FCNL may appeal to lawmakers not to use the abortion debate to paralyze action on other legislation.” The policy committee is exploring whether or not they should change this position. Doug H and Jim H are MFM representatives to FCNL and would like to hear your thoughts and feelings about this issue, by email or phone soon.

Quaker Voluntary Service has two program Fridays each month. Could you provide a vegetarian lunch for three on April 14th or 28th? 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.

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

Established writers as well as dabblers will have an informal writing session Mon night, Jan 2nd, 7-9PM. This is a chance to connect with one another, writing with prompts and sharing what we write. ALL INVITED, whether or not you have participated before! Contact Jane D with questions or interest.

Come for thirty minutes of Lectio Divina and worship sharing at noon on Tuesdays. We 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. Contact Steve for the link.

There is a new Getting to Know You, storytelling group meeting at 1PM on the second Tuesday of each month. Want to find out more? Contact Kate W-J.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

VOLUNTEER

Friends School of MN Plant Sale need YOU! Volunteers come from all over the Twin Cities to perform jobs at all skill levels. For example:
~ take a four-hour shift setting up; stocking the shelves; assisting shoppers /tidying / clerking during the sale; or cleaning
up after (sign-up here: https://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/volunteer)
~ collect newspaper sleeves / bags for bulb packaging (bring to the box at the meetinghouse)
~ collect strawberry / tomato boxes for shoppers to use (contact FSMN to learn when and where to take them)
~ volunteer to help feed those working back-to-back shifts: (sign-up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0f48a8a62ca4f49-food#/)

WORKSHOPS, FILMS, RETREATS, PROGRAMS, PRESENTATIONS

SAVE SPACE IN YOUR LIFE FOR Northern Yearly Meeting, Memorial Day weekend! This year’s theme is “Getting to Where I’m Supposed to Be: Pruning Before Growth.” How can we cut back and center on what is most important? NYM 2023 will focus on releasing, renewing our spirits, and rebirth where we are most led. Find out more about annual sessions and plans for this year’s joyful gathering here!

The Black Quaker Project’s Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival and Forum will host the final showing on Sat, Apr 8 at noon(CT). This last film is Paul Robeson: Tribute to An Artist (1978) and the Proud Valley (1940). Register at this link .

Quaker Youth Retreat at Scattergood Friends School, April 14-16! This will be a great opportunity for rising 8th-12th graders who want to visit Scattergood for a weekend aimed at service, leadership, and finding one’s voice. This is a free event; limited lodging/meals for drivers. For more information, contact: Sadie at skirschenman(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)scattergood.org.

Friends are welcome at the American Friends Service Committee Corporation Program, Connecting for Lasting Change, April 14 – 15. Plenary speaker and some workshops available online. Register by clicking on the items that interest you.

The Alternatives to Violence Project will offer a basic, advanced, and training workshop Weds and Sats, April 12, 15, 19 and 22. These interactive workshops can help you learn new responses to frustrations or conflicts – in your life, in your neighborhood, and in MN prisons. Give yourself additional tools to put your non-violent beliefs into action for the benefit of us all. More and register at https://www.fnvw.org/avp.

Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) will host its mid-year meeting, Meeting in the Middle: How do we have constructive dialogue across differences, (hybrid) Apr 15 – 16. More and register at IYMC.org . Registration deadline is APRIL 2.

Attend The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools: A Call for Accountability and Healing, an online presentation of the research findings around the role Quakers played in the forced assimilation of Native children during the 19th and 20th centuries. Discussion will focus on how Friends can acknowledge the harm that was done and appropriately support healing in Indigenous communities. April 16, 3-5PM (CT). Register at: https://friendspeaceteams.org/quaker-boarding-schools-apr-2023/

“What are you doing here?” the interplay of Quaker Values and Spiritual Accompaniment in Quaker and Non-Quaker Settings” will be offered Thurs, April 20 – Sun, April 23, at Quaker Hill Conference Center, Richmond, IN, and online. Consider how we as Friends engage in spiritual care with each other and in our multi-faith settings. How do hierarchies play out in Quaker and multi-faith settings alike? How do we explain what we do to different audiences? How do we maintain our own spiritual integrity as we accompany people with a variety of spiritual beliefs and practices? Through participatory workshops, insight sessions, and small group sharing, attenders will have a chance to engage with issues such as professional and spiritual authority, theological grounding, and the dynamics of seeking, finding and helping or accompanying others. Register and learn more at QPCC.US.

Earlham School of Religion will offer the lecture, “All Real Living is Meeting; Close Encounters of the Quaker Kind,” given by Parker Palmer on Thurs, April 27th; 6PM (CY) – in person and online. Parker Palmer is an author, speaker, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. For more and to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/perkins-family-lecture-series-tickets-535961313717 .

The first annual Quaker Leadership Conference will be April 27-29 at Earlham in Richmond, IN. Gather to share, listen, learn, and discern how God is working through us and among us and how we might contribute to a vital future for the Religious Society of Friends. Quaker leaders under the age of 40 are eligible for a discount code. For more, see https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1st-annual-quaker-leadership-center-conference-tickets-548018276417

School of the Spirit will offer a Contemplative Retreat, Reconnecting With the Divine in One Another, at the Siena Center in Racine, WI, April 27-30. Come experience the distinctly Quaker manner of knowing contemplation in community. There will be time for individual prayer, reflection, rest, and walks. Sinking down into the silence, we are likely to want to give voice to what we’re encountering there, so there will be times for worship sharing in small groups as well as opportunity to meet one-on-one with a retreat leader. More information is available on the retreat website.

The 2023 Friends General Conference Gathering (FGC), Listen So That We May LIVE, will be July 2-8 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR. Plenaries will be hybrid. FFI, see fgcquaker.org/fgcprograms/the-gathering/
Friends are invited to apply to exhibit art. Participate in the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts (FQA) 2023 Show, “Out of the Silence,” presenting all forms of art (still art; videos of performances). This will be a Slide Show Exhibition available at FGC at Western Oregon University from July 2nd through 8th, and will also be shown, in perpetuity, on FQA’s website beginning July 1st, 2023. There will be an online Zoom reception for participating artists, FQA members, and guests. Learn more at www.fqaquaker.org. Application information is at this link (application deadline is May 1; earlier is appreciated.)

If you are looking for a great summer adventure vacation at a very affordable cost, look at People Camp, offered by Friends for a NonViolent World (August 6-12). This is a great experience for parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, couples, and singles. Take a look at a slide show here and an information page and video along with link to registration, here, to get a glimpse!

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Rise + Repair Legislative Update, Tues, April 4th, 7PM, via Zoom. Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light has been working toward truly groundbreaking legislation. Hear exciting updates from MNIPL’s Strategic Policy Director Sara Wolff and Legislative Affairs Organizer Juventino Meza and how you can support these climate justice and Indigenous rights efforts. Particular attention given to the MN Climate Innovation Finance Authority legislation which has the potential to leverage $500 billion in state and federal funding for Minnesotans across the state, particularly those most affected by the climate crisis. Rise and Repair is a coalition of advocacy groups, including MNIPL and Honor the Earth, working for Indigenous reparations and sovereignty, and environmental health and justice. Register here

Amnesty International is hosting Faith in Action to End the Death Penalty: Raising Our Voices as an Interfaith Community, an interfaith action against the death penalty. Join AIUSA and faith leaders from across the United States on Tues, April 4th, 7:30PM(CT), to learn more about the human rights impact of the death penalty in the US, the critical role communities of faith play in the campaign to end the death penalty, and how your community can join this vital movement! Register here.

The Muslim American Society of Minnesota and Minnesota Council of Churches have built relationships, reduced Islamophobia, and fostered conversations between people of different faiths through Taking Heart Ramadan Iftars. During Ramadan you are invited to an open house at a mosque where you can witness prayer, learn about your neighbors and enjoy a fast-breaking meal. Sign up to attend a Taking Heart Iftar.

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).