July 14, 2024

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

10:00 – 11:00 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Bill Hendricks – planned speaker; Dave Bostrom – musician; care of meeting. Mary Bosserman; Zoom host – Kate W.-J.

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

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

From the clerk: There are individuals attending worship and other activities who are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation emitted from cell phones. Others wish to distance and remain masked to avoid contracting Covid. Out of respect for all our members and attenders, we are invited to turn off our cell phones upon entering the meetinghouse rather than just silencing them and avoid sitting unmasked on the benches under the windows which are reserved for persons who are masked.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

Evan Welkin and Friends World Committee for Consultation. Evan begins service as the Executive Secretary of on July 15th.

The American Friends Service Committee youth program participants in St. Louis, Chicago, and the Twin Cities. These young people will gather in Minneapolis July 28-August 3 for the first-ever Midwest Youth Summer Intensive. Curious, passionate and caring Black and Palestinian youth ages 15-18 will gather to learn more about the work of making positive change in our communities.

The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, meeting Mon-Thurs, July 15-18.

People who are grieving or suffering from injustice, conflict, racism, colonialism, displacement, loss, and the climate crisis, and all those who are aiding victims and the dispossessed.

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.

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. Serving as a closer is a ministry of service to the meeting.

Members of the Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice group invite you to send a postcard to Mayor Jacob Frey. The mayor’s office is currently negotiating with utilities to get them on board with the Minneapolis Climate Equity Plan. These negotiations determine whether there is funding for clean energy homes in Minneapolis over the next decade. Working with Unidos MN, the goal is to send 1300 postcards to the mayor by July 22. Look for the table out front after monthly meeting or talk to one of the group members: Nettie, Jim, Barbara, Allen, Eleni, Doug, Lara, Wina. You can also send a postcard online at https://bit.ly/postcardhealthyfuture. The DIWRJ group has been working with Resmaa Menakem’s book, The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning. Using his techniques, we have learned to quiet our minds, calm our hearts, and settle our bodies so we can bring our best selves to these uncertain times. We have bonded as a group and, after using a combination of Quaker discernment and body intelligence, we are ready to move out into the world. Join us!

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! Additional adults are needed to help with programming. Children and Families Coordinator, Cathy, will be gone for two weeks in July. Take the opportunity to get to know the young folks now attending meeting! Email Cathy N. with interest. Haven’t gone through the clearness process to work with children of the meeting? Contact Rae Beth, Child Welfare Coordinator.

Heads up: MFM will help prepare and serve a Loaves and Fishes dinner at Holy Rosary Church on Mon, July 29th. Join other metro-area Friends, the Ismaili Community and the Mayim Rabim congregation to provide a nutritious meal at Holy Rosary Church in S Mpls, 2424 – 18th Ave S. There are three shifts to cover the tasks of the meal: meal prep (2-3:30PM); burrito assembly and handing out the meals (4:15-5:30PM,) and clean up (5:15-6:30PM.) Fruit donations, dropped off at Holy Rosary after 2:00, are needed as well. Email Sue K. to sign up for a shift or to arrange to drop off fruit. Masks, gloves, and hats required. This remains a COVID risk. Sign up to come if you can!

Needed: Someone to bring donated food from the meetinghouse to the Division of Indian Works, 1001 E Lake St, Minneapolis, once a month. Call Deborah J. for more.

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, contributions will need to increase by about 24% in addition to using the $25,000 reserves. 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. Progress Report: Contributions to the general fund in the first quarter total $30,751.50. First quarter contributions usually cover 12-18% of the total budget. First quarter contributions are 23% of the curtailed budget; and 20.4% of our aspirational budget. Thank you, Friends, for your generous support! A cautionary note – some Friends have made their annual contribution to the meeting in the first quarter rather than the third quarter. This will not necessarily result in an increase in total contributions. Friends are asked to consider 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.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

Quaker Indian Boarding Schools Research Network will offer a webinar on Mon, July 15th, 6:30-8PM. During the 19th century, almost all Christian denominations collaborated with the U.S. government’s policy of forced assimilation by operating “Indian boarding schools.” The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools Research Network (QIBS) is a group of volunteer researchers who are gathering information about Quaker-operated and Quaker-influenced boarding schools. Their research will be made available to Native American tribes and family members, DoI investigators, and the public. In this webinar, QIBS researchers will share some of their findings and discuss their research process. Interested researchers are invited to join them in this work of truth-telling, accountability, and collaboration. For background, watch this slide presentation. Register for the webinar at https://friendspeaceteams.org/qibs-presentation-jul-24/

Register for Friends for a NonViolent World People Camp, Aug 11-17. People Camp is a rich experience of shared community life and work, recreation and connection, social justice learning and action opportunities for children and adults at the North Pines Retreat Center in Park Rapids.. Find out more and register here.

A Young Adult Quaker Gathering will be in the UK, August 21-25! Come join a group of YAFs from around the world to wait on the living Spirit together, to consider the transforming experience of early Friends, and what this might mean for us today – with lots of time for fun and fellowship, too! Centering on the promise that sustained early Friends, ‘where two or three gather in my name, there I will be in the midst of them’ (Matt. 18:20), Friends will gather at the historic Jordans Friends Meetinghouse & Quaker Centre, not too far from London, with some space for free accommodation nearby. Register at this link. Friends led to support the Gathering, can at this link. A longer write-up about the Gathering can be found in the Friend at this link.

Join Friends for a NonViolent World at the 28th Annual Community Peace Celebration, Aug 16th, 2-9PM at Western Sculpture Park – 387 Marion St, St Paul, MN 55103. Come for a day filled with music, dance, delicious food, and uplifting stories of peace. Save the date! More here.

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.

Gaza
* urge Congress to resume U.S. funding for life-saving Palestinian aid. The situation for Palestinians in Gaza continues
to deteriorate though there is hope for a ceasefire. All parties involved need to restore food aid before mass starvation occurs. If starvation reaches an advanced stage, the human body loses the ability to utilize food, and death may occur even with medical treatment. Quakers need to continue to demand a ceasefire. Friends Committee on National Legislation action link: https://fcnl.quorum.us/campaign/51886/?utm_source=fcnlaction
* 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.
* Joyce Ajlouny, American Friends Service Committee General Secretary, explains what students mean when they demand divestment – and why we should listen….Check out these testimonies from Palestinians in Gaza – https://gazaunlocked.org/displaced-gaza….Watch AFSC’s recent webinar on Rebuilding Education in Gaza: What Can We Do?….Rick Wilson of AFSC explores the solidarity economy.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

The MN Department of Commerce is hosting public forums to inform the design of Minnesota’s Home Energy Rebate (HER) programs. These forums aim to gather local perspectives, insights, and priorities from those who will benefit from the program, ensuring inclusivity and reaching populations often underrepresented in decision-making processes. Open to all Minnesota residents, especially those with an interest in energy efficiency or who work in the energy efficiency sector, including utilities and contractor workforce; non-profits, community-based organizations and advocacy groups; and renters, homeowners, and landlords. July 17th, 6 – 8PM at the Urban League Twin Cities, 2100 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis, 55411. Learn more and register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/minnesota-home-energy-rebates-public-forum-twin-cities-tickets-922978291917?aff=oddtdtcreator

Mayim Rabim has an Israel Palestine Study Group to understand the current violence through the lens of dual narratives, holding the experiences of the Jewish and Arab peoples of the region with empathy and a commitment to examining our own preconceptions and assumptions. The group has been compiling the resources they have discovered and discussed. Find them at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t8Lw2sfrCmJXHnlgBvIka-UaoakhX8iUPPLEcLnJZOU/edit?pli=1

There will be a The Circle of Reason Inter-Belief Conversation Café: Can “It” Happen Here? Mon, July 15th, 7-9PM, via Zoom: https://www.zoom.us/j/93581255983#success. Come share and hear our diverse worldviews on whether “IT” – from Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here – is comin’ round the bend or riding into the sunset. Participants agree to open-mindedness, acceptance, curiosity, discovery, sincerity, brevity, and confidentiality, hopefully providing a non-coercive way to talk “IT” over. The Circle of Reason hosts conversation cafes once a month.
Braver Angels seeks to bridge the partisan divide in the U.S. and to strengthen the republic. Better Angles will host a potluck this Mon, July 15th at Lake Elmo Park Preserve. Bring a dish to share and drinks for you and yours. Plates and cutlery supplied; eating around 6PM. Bring yard games if you want. Kids are welcome as there is a nearby playground. We’ll do a Walkie-Talkie exercise — a short walk with someone you don’t know and offer possible topics to discuss. Then, we’ll come back together to share. Register and more at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/all-area-potluck-picnic-and-walkie-talkie-time-mn-twin-cities-east-registration-29234394087?aff=oddtdtcreator&discount=BRAVER&link

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.