January 21, 2024

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 – 10:00 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, John Stuart; Zoom host – John K.

10:15 – 11:00 Quaker History 101 – where did we start and how have we arrived to where we are today? Offered by Meeting historian, Linda Coffin. Zoom host – John K.

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): John Kraft – speaker; Dave Bostrom – musician; care of meeting, John Dunham; Zoom host – John K.

Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minnneapolisfriends.org for the link to worship Sunday programming.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

Those who have, or are recovering from, COVID or other respiratory disease.

Those living in the midst of violence and the threat of violence, those who fear for the safety of loved ones, those who want for basic necessities.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: Lakota Healing Circles: Francis and Barbara Bettelyoun will describe the Buffalo Star People campaign and how it addresses, through healing circles, building, and other training, the dire conditions in which the Lakota people exist today. Friends are encouraged to bring a bag lunch! Soup, bread and cheese will be available at the rise of the second worship. Francis and Barbara will speak at greater depth about their vision and work at 1:30PM. Available via Zoom, too. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Friday for the link.

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.

NEXT SUNDAY at 1:30PM – Hear more from Francis and Barbara Bettelyoun about the Buffalo Star People campaign. Barbara and Francis, a Lakota couple, will talk about their campaign plan to heal trauma and recover key elements of indigenous culture among the people of the Seven Council Fires. Named Buffalo Star People, the campaign, fashioned by Francis and Barbara, integrates traditional values with modern building and healing techniques in a multi-generation process of restoring language, spiritual practices, sustainable housing and food production, and lifeways. Their plan has been nearly two decades in the making. They are reaching out to settler descendants of good will with this opportunity to support reparative efforts that will benefit, not only the Seven Council Fires people (Lakota-Dakota-Nakota) of Turtle Island, but also the descendants of the European settlers. Available via Zoom, too – email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org for the link.

STARTING IN FEBRUARY – our closing practice will not include asking for additional announcements. Please send announcement information to office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org so it can be included in the bulletin.

The Winter Gift is a special winter collection sent to recipients approved by monthly meeting. The East Philips Neighborhood Institute and Jonathan House were approved as the Winter Gift recipients for this year. Make a contribution to the Winter Gift by writing checks to Minneapolis Meeting with “Winter Gift” in the memo line before January 31st.

Watch the documentary Healing from Hate, via Zoom, on Thurs, Jan 25th, at 6:30PM with other Friends at the Peace and Social Concerns Committee Movie Night. The film follows members of Life After Hate—an organization founded by ex-neo Nazis and Skinheads—in their work to help White Nationalists leave their hate groups and heal communities torn apart by racism. Healing from Hate examines the root causes of hate group activity and digs into what’s needed to return meaning, identity and tolerance to broken and angry young white men and women. To watch the trailer, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2B9ugeccPk. The Zoom link: ID: 894 0415 7057; Passcode: 132235; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89404157057?pwd=bEF5OWk2elFJdWR6MGp4aGttNG4wQT09

GAME NIGHT, Sat, Jan 27th, 5:30PM Enjoy food and fun with local Quaker Voluntary Service Alumni, the Local Support Committee members, and local Friends here at the meetinghouse! Eat pizza, play interactive games, including some from the Alternatives to Violence collection, and have cocoa and popcorn to round out the evening. All are welcome! RSVP to Jane F. so there will be enough pizza!

There will be a special supporters’ Quaker Voluntary Service Briefing THIS Wed, Jan 24th at 6:30PM(CT). Hear the staff and board 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.

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!

There will be a memorial service for Frank Wood on Sat, Jan 27th, 10AM at the Friends School of MN,1365 Englewood Ave, St Paul. Light refreshments will follow. The link will be in next week’s bulletin. Frank’s obituary can be read here.

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

The Watson Reading Group will meet Tues, June 27th, 7-8:30PM (and every fourth Tues of the month,) via Zoom. We take turns reading aloud from Ranae Hanson’s Watershed with time for discussion. Most participants have a copy of the book available to them, but it is not mandatory. Please contact John D. with interest.

The Spirituality in Dance and Movement group will NOT gather at the meetinghouse on Tues, Jan 31st. This group usually meets the last Tuesday of any odd month.

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 and Movement Group, last Tuesday morning in odd months (but cancelled in Jan!).

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

URGENT ACTION REQUESTED: The U.N. states that today, over 90% of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger and critical water shortages. 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:
~ 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.
~ Link to AFSC’s most recent update about Gaza and the West Bank here.
~ weekly worship for peace in Palestine every Thurs, 4:30 (CT) through February or until a permanent ceasefire is reached: https://afsc-org.zoom.us/j/85831333364?pwd=VEtPTUZuYk5hTHV2OGs1VzRkY0ZKUT09; ID: 858 3133 3364; Passcode: 759311.

The Northern Yearly Meeting Anti-Racism Working Group will meet Thurs, Jan. 25th, 7PM. This group is open to all interested. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Thurs for the link.

Earth Quaker Action Team, founded by George Lakey and others, will offer a free, online series on nonviolent direct action to build the skills and spiritual commitment for mobilization in the Vanguard S.O.S. campaign. This series is useful for those preparing to participate in the next Vanguard action but also for those interested in nonviolent direct action campaigning in general. Sessions are on Thursdays, 6:30-8PM (CT), Jan 25-Feb 29. More here. Watch a QuakerSpeak video about the first Earth Quaker Action Team action.

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 include affirmation, communication, cooperation, and creative conflict resolution. Learn more here.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Anglo-Dakota Women Straddling Cultures in the Early Nineteenth Century, a program of the Linden Hills History Study Group, will be offered Mon, Jan 22, 7PM at St. John’s Episcopal Church (4201 Sheridan Ave S). Hear about four of Chief Cloudman’s granddaughters who grew up near Lake Harriet and of another, Daybreak Woman, who was born and raised in a Mdewakanton band. How did these women of mixed parentage identify, socialize and navigate language, culture, marriage, family life, and aging? Suggested donation, $5.

The Community Choir (which rehearses at the meetinghouse) will have a winter concert at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd at 7pm Thurs, Jan. 25th. All are welcome! Come to a Community Sing, here at the meetinghouse, Feb 1st, hosted by the Community Choir. All are welcome!

Middle East Peace Now: This week, the US Senate voted to table proposed Senate Resolution 504 enabling evaluation of US aid to Israel in light of Israel’s human rights practices. Call your Senators and demand they do better. (Text of S. Res. 504; Voting Record (YES votes tabled the Resolution); an opinion piece about the Resolution)

OFFICE HOURS

The 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.