January 7, 2024

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

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

10:15 – 11:00 Experiment with Light, featuring Albert Bellg, poet, psychologist, retreat facilitator, and member of a Quaker worship group under the care of the Madison Meeting. Al will share how EwL can help in the facilitation of deep spiritual seeking. Zoom host – Marilyn J.

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Mary Gochnauer – speaker; Jacque Wiersma – musician; care of meeting, Sandy Olson; Zoom host – Marilyn J.

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

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Stay and visit with Friends at the potluck following semi-programmed worship today! All are welcome, even if you didn’t bring a dish to share. Potlucks are do-it-ourselves affairs. Look for ways to help the effort: clearing and washing tables, washing and drying dishes, putting away chairs. Many hands make light work for everybody!

Monthly meeting for business is next Sunday, 9:45-11:15. Hear more about the Buffalo Star People and the upcoming visit of its founders, Francis and Barbara Bettelyoun, as well as other committee reports and updates. Friends have a unique way of doing business, rooted in attentiveness and in listening to the promptings of the Spirit. The primary goal is to worship together in discerning the will of God for the meeting.

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.

The Winter Gift is a special winter collection that is sent to recipients, nominated by meeting members and attenders, recommended by the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, and approved by monthly meeting. The East Philips Neighborhood Institute and Jonathan House were approved as the Winter Gift recipients for this year. After a decade of organizing and resistance, EPNI won the opportunity to convert the Roof Depot warehouse into a community hub and indoor urban farm, an historic achievement of self-determination, climate crisis mitigation, and environmental justice. Contributions will help fund the conversion. Jonathan House extends shelter, hope, and healing to asylum-seekers in Minneapolis/St. Paul, offering supportive housing, strategic connections, practical assistance, and a welcoming community, helping new Minnesotans recover from forced displacement and begin to rebuild their lives. To make a contribution to the Winter Gift, make checks out to Minneapolis Meeting and put “Winter Gift” in the memo line.

Fun with Friends: January is a perfect time to enjoy the warm company of Friends! Gather on Jan 18th at the Landmark Center, 75 Fifth St. W, St Paul, for a bag lunches and conversation at 11:00; at noon, attend an Artaria String Quartet concert in Courtroom 317. After the one-hour concert, Friends may choose to stay to tour the music museum or other displays throughout the building.

Quaker Voluntary Service, a program supported by local Quaker meetings, has spent the past year evaluating the program and the cultural context in which it exists. Read about what has been discovered and what will be changed in the coming year here.
~ The local QVS Program, on hiatus this year, will restart for 2024-2025 and your ideas for possible new sites where the QVS Fellows can work are needed! Progressive, compatible for-profit and non-profit organizations will be considered. Contact office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org with your thoughts or contacts with organizations.
~ Want to be involved with this program, nurturing and helping ground the leaders of tomorrow in Quaker values? Explore with Mary Ellen S. (TCFM), Tom W, or Jane F.
~ There will be a special supporters’ Briefing on Jan 24th at 6:30PM (CT) where the staff and board will share the exciting decisions and shifts recently made by the Board of Directors, to be implemented over the next two years. There will be time for questions and opportunities for you to share feedback. Register here.

There will be a memorial service for Frank Wood on January 27th at Friends School of Minnesota,1365 Englewood Ave, Saint Paul, at 10 AM. Light refreshments will follow. A Zoom link will be available by mid-month.

Loaves and Fishes, Jan 29th: 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. Prepare dinner (2-4:30); package and hand out the meals and clean-up (5:15-6:30.) Fruit donations needed. Volunteers wear hair covering/hats, closed toe shoes and work in small groups. Email Sue K. to sign up for a shift to make sure there is sufficient coverage or to arrange to drop off fruit. Sign up to come if you can!

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

Established writers as well as dabblers will have an informal writing session THIS Mon night, Jan 8th, 7-9PM. This is a chance to connect with one another, writing with prompts and sharing what we write. Serious, whimsical, beautiful and quirky – we’ve enjoyed them all! You are welcome to come laugh, ponder, and create together, whether or not you have participated before! https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81928610224; Meeting ID: 819 2861 0224. Contact Jane D. with questions or interest.

Come to the Getting to Know You Storytelling Group, every second Tuesday at 1PM. This informal gathering gives you the opportunity to hear the stories of each others’ lives – funny, moving, formative, flip. This Tuesday’s prompt: Describe your Quaker convincement experience. If you didn’t have one, what led you to be part of the MFM community? Contact Kate W-J for the link.

The Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice group meets this Tues, Jan 9th, 7-8:30PM via Zoom. Email Nettie S.for the link. ALL ARE WELCOME, visitors and those who want to join longer-term. We continue to read and do the practices suggested in The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning by Resmaa Menakkem. We are looking at participating/supporting local social justice initiatives – and doing that in a way that comes from a deep, settled place. Very Quakerly!

Small group line-up: Writing Group, first Monday night; Conflict Soiree, first Wednesday afternoon; Getting to Know You Group, second Tuesday afternoon; Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice Group, second Tuesday night; Right Relationship with Indigenous People, third Tuesday night; Reading Group, fourth Tuesday night; Spirituality of Dance Group, last Tuesday morning in odd months.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

URGENT ACTION REQUESTED: The U.N. states that today, twenty-five percent of the people in Gaza are starving and the entire population faces a famine crisis. Friends Committee on National Legislation has made it easy for you to contact your legislators in D.C. to urge a ceasefire, de-escalation, restraint, and respect for international law in Gaza and Israel. Click here. It also provides resources for talking with others in your community about what is going on there – to raise awareness and invite action. Click here. American Friends Service Committee has an Action Hour every Friday at 11AM (CT) where you can get updates from AFSC folks in Gaza, hear what’s happening on Capitol Hill, and get resources for action. Register here for the link.

Addressing Patterns of Racial Wounding and Racial Justice in Quaker Communities, a Pendle Hill first Monday lecture, will be given by Lauren Brownlee and Zenaida Peterson on Jan 8th, 6:30-8 (CT) via Zoom. Patterns of white supremacy culture and racism exist in the Society of Friends and associated organizations. Learn about the guide created by the Quaker Coalition for Uprooting Racism and several Quaker institutions, inspired by the work of Tema Okun, with examples of common Quaker racial harms and answering interventions. For more and to register, click here.

American Friends Service Committee is having a weekly worship for peace in Palestine on Thursdays, 4:30 (CT) through at least January and February or until a permanent ceasefire is reached: https://afsc-org.zoom.us/j/85831333364?pwd=VEtPTUZuYk5hTHV2OGs1VzRkY0ZKUT09; ID: 858 3133 3364; Passcode: 759311.

Friends General Conference’s ongoing Poetry as Spiritual Practice workshop invites you to experiment with words as a way to deepen your connection with your Inner Guide. No writing or poetry experience necessary! Register for one or more than one; the next session is Jan 13, 9-11AM (CT). More and to register here.

Friends Committee on National Legislation will host an Intro to Advocacy session, Jan 18th, 7-8 (CT) online. Come for an engaging and informative session with valuable insights and strategies on how you can effectively advocate for the issues that matter most to you! More and register here.

Friends General Conference will be holding a Winter Conference, Changing Times, Jan. 18-21, with four components:
– Connecting to Spirit
– Becoming an Actively Anti-racist Faith Community
– Changing Structures for Changing Times
– The Future of the Religious Society of Friends.  
Registration is now open. Information about speakers and workshop and the schedule as well as a link to register can be found here.

The Alternatives to Violence Project will offer a Basic (beginning) Workshop Jan 26, 27, and 28. Founded in prison and developed from the life experiences of people who’ve been incarcerated, AVP encourages every person’s innate power to positively transform first themselves and then the world we live in. The Basic Workshop helps to develop primary conflict management skills using personal experiences, problem-solving techniques, and experiential exercises. Some of the discussion topics: affirmation, communication, cooperation, and creative conflict resolution. Learn more here.

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).