June 9, 2024

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

10:00 – 11:00 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Jill Frew; Zoom host – Marilyn J.

11:00 – 12:30 monthly meeting for business: Stephen Snyder, clerk; Tom Ward, recording clerk; Zoom host – Marilyn J.

Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to get the link to worship.

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

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

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

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.

Minneapolis Meeting needs you! The Tech Committee will offer regular AV training and refresher sessions through this summer. Running the AV system is not about technology, it’s more like following a recipe. We’re making the process easy with step by step ‘recipe cards’ to operate the system. This is a call to a ministry of making connections – helping connect people remotely with the meetinghouse and back again. Willing to help? Contact Marilyn J. or Roger M.

We are grateful to be welcoming new children and families and offering relationship, care, and planned programming during worship! The time has come for the next step: additional adults coming forward to get to know the young folks now attending meeting. Ideally, we will develop a rotation of adult volunteers who will help once or twice every eight weeks. Implement a lesson already planned, or be interviewed about your experience of Quakerism! A sign-up sheet is on the elevator table. Questions? Email Cathy N.. Haven’t gone through the clearness process to work with children of the meeting? Contact Rae Beth C, Child Welfare Coordinator.

Young Adult Quakers are gathering for a picnic and a free concert at Bryant Square Park on June 13th. Picnic starting at 5:45 and music from Irish Diplomacy (an eclectic Irish band) starts at 6:30. Bring your own picnic or pick up take out from the variety of restaurants nearby. This is a family friendly event – parents and kids of all ages are welcome! RSVPs to Elizabeth S. are appreciated to ensure we have room to sit together.

Save the date: Join East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), Southwest Alliance for Equity (SWAE), and MFM for a fundraiser at the meetinghouse Thurs, June 27th at 6:30PM. Help raise some money to support the EPNI Urban Farm and Neighborhood Hub at the old Roof Depot and, just as important, raise awareness of the project! There will be snacks, beverages, social time, and an update directly from EPNI. More to come . . .

From the clerk: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor: 9:7 NIV). Or as the children’s song goes: “Love is something if you give it away, you end up having more.” Can we each see our giving as an act of love?

Monthly Meeting approved a curtailed 2024-25 budget. In order to meet the curtailed budget, contributions will need to increase 10% over those of last year, and Meeting will still need to use $25,000 of general fund reserves. If we are to make our usual contributions to other organizations and support MFM programming at the usual level this year, contribution will need to increase by about 24% in addition to using the $25,000 reserves. THANK YOU for your past giving to the meeting. Friends are asked to consider anew what financial support they are able to give to the meeting at this time. As this year progresses, Meeting will convene one or more threshing sessions to discern how we can best balance our vision for the future with our energies and finances.

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

The Getting to Know You Storytelling Group will meet this Tues, June 11th, (and every second Tuesday!) at 1PM. This month’s prompt – “Tell us about animals in your life (not pets).” Email Kate W-J for the link. Come get better acquainted!

The Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice group meets every second Tues night, 7-8:30 and is exploring and practicing the inner and outer work of direct action using Resmaa Menakem’s book The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning. There is a core group; visitors / newcomers are warmly welcome. Email Nettie S. for more or the 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, under review; Reading Group, fourth Tuesday night.

OPPORTUNITIES AMONG FRIENDS

The local Quaker Voluntary Service program is shaping up! However, a couple of the non-profit organization placements involved this year will require the use of a car, which the prospective Fellows don’t have. Do you have a car we can use for the months of September through mid-June? Please contact MSP Local Coordinator Kate Cowie-Haskell, kate(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)quakervoluntaryservice.org.

Friends General Conference Annual Gathering, June 30-July 6. You can still register for the in-person or online Gathering in Haverford, though on-campus housing registration is closed. Workshop and program spots are first come, first serve, so please don’t delay! For more and to register for in-person or online participation, see https://www.fgcquaker.org/fgcprograms/the-gathering/registration-and-logistics/.

Friends General Conference hosts a monthly worship for Newcomers and Seekers. It introduces Quaker worship practices as well as allowing for questions and reflection. Every second Monday evening, 5:30-6:30; next meeting on June 10th. Register at https://www.fgcquaker.org/event/newcomers-worship/

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.
* urge Congress to resume U.S. funding for life-saving Palestinian aid. Palestinians in Gaza are starving and facing disease, and ongoing military attacks. The entire population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid. But the U.S. has suspended funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main provider of aid in Gaza. The FY24 budget has made that cut permanent through this year. Stopping these funds deepens the humanitarian crisis.
* AFSC and partner organizations recently released a new resource documenting violations of U.S. and international law committed by Israel. The report highlights Israel’s illegal use of U.S. weapons against Palestinians over the last seven months. Read more.

Quaker Call to Action’s Steering Committee’s offers this List of Priority Actions (HERE,) short-term actions that can be taken in the months leading up to the November elections.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Luther Seminary presents an Aus Memorial Lecture, “Bonhoeffer, the Gospel, and the Other,” Tues, June 11th, 6PM, Olson Campus Center, St. Paul. (Complimentary meal provided.) Come to this interactive, “salon”-style event in person on campus or online. Tripp Fuller and Andrew Root will lead rich conversation about the remarkable life and enduring relevance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Before his imprisonment and martyrdom for working with the German resistance, Bonhoeffer lived and shared the gospel in an increasingly dangerous world. Come discover how Bonhoeffer’s ideas of who is “Other” impacted how he lived—and died—as a witness for his faith. Learn more about the event here. Register at https://share.hsforms.com/1tmSiquUnSyOgW60FH6Be7gcuv1m?

Spirit of Water: Come to a celebration the Mississippi! Gather to connect, play, learn, pray, celebrate, and honor the spirit of water, June 15th, 5-8PM. Meet at Hidden Falls Regional Park in St. Paul for speakers, music, booths, food, art, and play areas for children. The event is co-presented by R.I.S.E. Coalition (Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging), United Theological Seminary, and Friends of the Mississippi River. Learn more here!

OFFICE HOURS – the Meeting Coordinator, will be in the office Wed, Thurs and Fri. afternoons, June 12-14. Phone messages checked daily. Bulletin deadline, noon Thur.