April 28, 2024

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

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

10:15 – 11:00 What’s Up with Quaker Voluntary Service? Get the news about what is happening at Quaker Voluntary Service, Minneapolis-St. Paul, new programs, BATS, and much more! Hilary Burgin, Executive Director, with some help from QVS alums, will be sharing all this with us. Zoom host – Kate W-J.

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Jane Furnas – speaker; Jacque Wiersma – musician; care of meeting, Joanne Esser; Zoom host – Kate W-J.

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

“Friends have never regarded [worship] as an individual activity…. The waiting and listening are activities in which everybody is engaged and produce spoken ministry which helps to articulate the common guidance which the Holy Spirit is believed to give the group as a whole. So the waiting and listening is corporate also. This is why Friends emphasize the ‘ministry of silence’ and the importance of coming to meeting regularly and with heart and mind prepared.” ~ John Punshon, 1987

Friends are reminded to silence your cell phone before entering the meetingroom.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP). Leah Robshaw Robinson (Friends for a NonViolent World) and Cynthia Bartoo (Prospect Hill Worship Group) will give us a glimpse into the Alternatives to Violence Program, an overview of its use in conflict zones around the world, and, in more detail: the AVP work with youth in Hennepin County and the impact of AVP on individual lives. There will be an opportunity to practice AVP conflict-resolution skills, too! Sponsored by the Welcoming and Outreach Committee.

Potluck next Sunday! Stay and visit with Friends and celebrate the work and attention Scott Wright has given the meetinghouse grounds for over two decades! All are welcome, even if you don’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!

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.

Loaves and Fishes, TOMORROW: 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 (2PM); pack up and hand out the meals (4PM) or serve meals and clean up (5:15.) Fruit donations needed. Email Sue K. to sign up for a shift or to arrange to drop off fruit. Volunteers wear hair covering/hats, closed-toe shoes; food is served to-go. Sign up to come if you can!

There will be an all-clerks meeting in the conference room at the rise of semi-programmed worship on May 12th. If you, as clerk, cannot attend, please ask someone else from your committee to be present. Help orient and support new clerks and create an opportunity to make working together easier!

HEADS UP: the summer schedule begins on May 27th with one worship at 10AM.

Seems like next autumn is forever away – but mark your calendars now for Fall Together October 26th! Make time to gather with Friends at beautiful Fish Lake Park to rest, relax, renew, re-connect and RELISH time together in the great outdoors!

Muffin Day! Calling all bakers, those able to stir a muffin mix, and those willing to buy and donate muffins: Welcoming and Outreach Committee will sell coffee and muffins at the Linden Hills Garage sale on Sat, May 11th. Fifteen dozen muffins are sought. Be part of this successful outreach to the neighborhood! Proceeds benefit Friends for a Nonviolent World. Contact Jane D. or Sue K. if you are able to donate muffins.

Come to a soup and bits simple potluck with American Friends Service Committee’s Brian Blackmore, Director of Quaker Engagement, at the meetinghouse on Sat, May 11, 5PM. Bring soup, bread, crackers, raw veggies, etc, or dessert to share as well as your curiosity about AFSC’s initiatives and connections to monthly meetings across the country.

Join the Fun with Friends Bird Walk, one of the favorite Fun with Friends activities in the past, 10AM on Thurs, May 16th at Veterans Park in Richfield! Migratory birds like warblers and herons should be at their peak. We’ll most likely see and hear at least twenty different kinds of birds. Bag lunch in the picnic shelter after. Use West entrance off Portland. Meet at the picnic shelter by the playground. Bring binoculars if you have them! Veterans Park, 6335 Portland Ave, 55423. Rain date May 23.

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 Lolly L. 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.

Being a Zoom Host is a great way to support the Meeting’s worship. Interested in being trained or just finding out more? Contact Marilyn J.

The Care and Counsel Committee facilitates pastoral care for Minneapolis Meeting members and attenders,
understanding the Quaker tradition that Friends minister to each other. If you are dealing with illness, grief, a major transition, or a stressful personal problem, we would like to be there for you. Contact committee co-clerks, John S. or Ellen S.
If a confidential discussion would support you as you make a decision, we will set up a clearness committee with you. Email John S. to explore that opportunity.
Other committee members are Connie A, Mary G, Jill F, and Jimbo L.

Northern Yearly Meeting created a worship-based, spirit-led working group in fall of 2019 to look at the work on racism that has been done within our yearly meeting, to consider available resources, and to seek allies and ways forward to further the ongoing anti-racist work of the NYM faith community. That (NYM) Anti-Racism Working Group is encouraging participation in the Friends General Conference Institutional Assessment, an opportunity to reflect on the anti-racism work which has occurred and the areas for growth; sparking further conversation and action. We hope to support sharing and inter-visitation to nourish and cross-fertilize seeds of change. In the future, we also look for a continued and rich dialogue with other Yearly Meetings and with FGC to nurture authentic commitment, accountability, and change. We hope we will have broad participation in this survey. Read more about NYM’s process and available resources at https://northernyearlymeeting.org/anti-racism/

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

Join the monthly “Conflict Soiree,” meeting on Zoom , Wed, May 1, 2PM. This is an ongoing group and drop-in’s are always welcome! We explore conflict and difference in our individual lives and in the meeting. We propose that becoming more skillful and comfortable with difference might cause us to be more authentic peacemakers everywhere we go. Contact Nettie S. for a Zoom link.

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.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

Looking ahead: Participate in Northern Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session – a great opportunity to meet with Quakers around the region! Come explore the theme Inward Guidance, Outward Action over Memorial Day weekend, May 24-27. Business meeting, time to enjoy the company of old and new Friends, opportunity to rest your mind and spirit, the opportunity for spiritual growth, campfires, walks in the woods, boating, swimming, singing, and much more. Children and youth participate in a lively and popular program. Take a look at the NYM Annual Session Brochure (on the NYM website.) Join virtually or in-person: Register for the weekend.

The Friends School of Minnesota Plant Sale catalogues are available! Until paper copies arrive at the meetinghouse, take a gander online at https://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/plants. If you are interested in bringing food to support the sale’s coordinators, sign up here. This year, food volunteers will be able to pull up and hand off their food item from their car, and they will receive a golden ticket to shop the presale on Thursday!

Friends for a NonViolent World People Camp registration – Get Early Bird rates (until May 31) to attend camp this summer – a rich experience of shared community life and work, recreation and connection, social justice learning, and action opportunities for children and adults. Find out more and register here.

Pendle Hill is offering a hybrid, Young Adult (18-25) Conference, Continuing Revolution 2024: Restorative Justice as Spiritual Practice, June 7-10, online plus three in-person sites. Restorative Justice seeks to both repair harm and address the root causes of the actions perpetrating harm. There will be hybrid workshops and spiritual grounding exercises as well as site-specific sessions. Participants will gain foundational knowledge about historical and contemporary RJ practices, learning from groups currently organizing for systemic change around RJ in national, local, and interpersonal communities, gaining tools and strategies for practicing restorative justice in their own communities in ways that reflect their values and hopes for building abolitionist futures. Learn more here at https://pendlehill.org/events/continuing-revolution-2024-restorative-justice-as-spiritual-practice/

American Friends Service Committee
* join AFSC every Friday at 11AM for an Action Hour for a Cease-fire Now.
* worship with attention to peace in Palestine and Israel with Friends across the U.S. every Thurs, online, at 4:30PM. Sign up to get the link at https://afsc.org/events/meeting-worship-attention-peace-palestine-israel.
* AFSC has an easy way for you to urge Congress to call for a permanent cease-fire, an end to U.S. military funding for Israel, a release of hostages held in Gaza and prisoners held in Israeli jails, and greater humanitarian access to Gaza at https://afsc.org/action/call-cease-fire-and-humanitarian-access-gaza-now.

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).