January 12, 2025

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

9:00 – 9:40 meeting for worship (unprogrammed): care of meeting, Mary Bosserman; Zoom host – Bill H.

9:45 – 11:15 Stephen Snyder, presiding clerk; Tom Ward, recording clerk; Zoom host – Sandy O.

11:15 –12:00 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Kate Wolfe-Jenson – speaker; care of meeting, Jane Furnas; Zoom host – Sandy O.

Need the link for Sunday worship and programming? Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org.

“Let’s move forward with love, not conquest; humility, not righteousness; generous curiosity, not hardened assumptions. It is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that matters so much. Let’s proceed with broken-open hearts, seeking truth, summoning courage, and focused on solutions.”
~ Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson, “Onward.” in All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (One World, 2020), 374.

HOLD IN THE LIGHT

Those who are suffering from injustice, violence, racism, colonialism, displacement, loss, and the climate crisis, including fires, and all those who are aiding victims and the dispossessed.

Those in positions of power.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

Feeling stressed? Discouraged? Fearful? Come to mid-week worship, online, Wed nights, 7PM. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Wed. for the link.

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: Liaison and Review Committee. Wow! Minneapolis Meeting now has four part-time employees and several contracted employees. How does MFM handle this expansion of employees? What is the difference between a regular employee and a contracted one? Glad you asked! Come to the midmorning program next Sun, Jan 19 to discover the new procedures and documents Liaison and Review Committee has created to make the hiring and employment process more systematic and respectful for employees. Hear first-hand from both committee clerks and the employees they supervise about the process and their work. This is a program you do not want to miss!

Follow-up to last week’s mid-morning program: If you are interested in participating in an Experiment with Light Group (meeting monthly,) email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org to be put in touch with coordinator, Diane B.

Nominating Committee is beginning their work in earnest. Take a minute or two to look over the committee list and the scope of the committees’ work: https://minneapolisfriends.org/committees/. The meeting especially needs new people to serve on Trustees, and on Stewardship and Finance, Care and Counsel, Ministry and Counsel, and Property Committees. If you have a knack for accounting and finance or feel drawn to the work of any of these committees or others, please contact Bill H, clerk of Nominating Committee.

Jeffry Broadbent, an MFM attender and retired professor at the UMN, has published an academic paper on political power, Power and Theory: Toward a Multidimensional Explanation of the Dynamic Political Field, which might be of interest to Friends. (Warning – the first part is abstract and complex but hopefully the main points will be evident.) You can find it at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2158379X.2024.2408017.

Contributions update: Thank you, Friends, for your generous financial support! Quickbooks (unconfirmed by the December bank statement) shows income for general funds, from April 1 to date, as $114,000. With that total, $6,200 per month, through March, is needed to meet the curtailed budget ($132,335); contributions of $12,100 are needed per month, through March, to fund the aspirational budget ($150,320). If you would like to set up automatic contributions to the meeting, contact Mike F. or Carolyn V., co-clerks, Stewardship and Finance Committee. Contributions to the Winter Gift totaled $3,360.00. Thank you, Friends.

SMALL GROUP OPPORTUNITIES AT MINNEAPOLIS MEETING

Come to thirty minutes of Lectio Divina, Divine Reading, followed by worship sharing on ZOOM, Tuesdays at noon. Hold a very brief reading from the Bible, Quaker, or other spiritual text to see how it might speak to us today: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82172920370?pwd=4v3zY9LtA79jzf5tGg24BDXb28Clkd.1 (copy and paste the link into your browser); Meeting ID: 821 7292 0370; Passcode: 661188

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. Contact Nettie S. for more and for the link.

LGBTQ+ Group meets every third Wed, 7PM. Welcome to the LGBTQAI+ individuals visiting Minneapolis Meeting. There is an LGBTQ+ group that meets monthly at the meetinghouse, and for those who can’t make it to the meetinghouse, via Zoom: ID: 838 9493 9409; Passcode: 562310; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83894939409?pwd=xDf2dSF20v7Sls3NaORiP6nEJjkXbU.1 (copy and paste link into your browser.) The group requests that attendance be limited at this time to those who are part of the LGBTQAI+ community. Contact Bill H. for more.

Small group line-up: Lectio Divina – every Tuesday noon; Writing Group – first Monday night; Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice Group – second Tuesday night; LGBTQIA+ Group – third Wednesday night; Reading Group – fourth Tuesday night; Conflict Soiree – last Tuesday afternoon.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

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 Mon. evening, 7-8PM(CT); next meeting tomorrow night. Register at https://www.fgcquaker.org/event/newcomers-worship/

Northern Yearly Meeting’s ad hoc Committee on How We Do Business will facilitate an exploration into the proposed new bylaws for NYM on Sat, Jan. 18th, 10-11:30AM. Walk through the specific proposed changes and see how they address the problems identified with the 1995 bylaws. This session will season the proposal and will help identify necessary modifications in advance of bringing the bylaws for initial review at Spring Interim Session. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org for the link.

Right Sharing of World Resources will host a Right Sharing Conversation on Simplicity Tues, Jan 21, 6:30PM(CT). Explore how simplicity manifests in our lives, and how its practice impacts our wider community and the world. Register via this google form.

Friends General Conference Annual Gathering, A Spring Whose Waters Never Fail, will be February 1-9, online only. Everyone – newborns to nonagenarians; life-long Friends to Quaker newcomers – are welcome to attend the Gathering of Friends. In structure, it’s part conference and part family camp. In content, it provides an abundance of opportunities to learn about Quakerism, foster spiritual life, and have fun. More at https://www.fgcquaker.org/fgcprograms/the-gathering/ Registration is now open!

Camp Woodbrooke, a small camp in the BIG outdoors, is an overnight camp emphasizing a close relationship with nature. Registration is now open for this immersion in Quaker values experience. Scholarships are available – look for the Financial Assistance Request form on the website: https://www.campwoodbrooke.org/dates-fees

The Middle East
* join Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) in calling for a ceasefire, de-escalation, and humanitarian access in Gaza. More at https://fcnl.quorum.us/campaign/51886/
* 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
* Building the anti-apartheid movement: In Dec, AFSC brought together representatives from over 35 communities, convening the Apartheid-Free Coalition. A panel featuring co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement Huwaida Arraf and Rabbi Alissa Wise with pre-recorded remarks from Rep. Cori Bush addressing what we can do in the U.S. to continue building the anti-apartheid movement for Palestinian liberation began the session. Watch the panel recording here.
* Lifelines: Aid Workers in Gaza. AFSC is encouraging Friends to screen this short film that provides a window into the lives and work of AFSC staff members in Gaza. The film follows AFSC’s Firas Ramlawi and Serena Awad as they provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza who have been displaced due to relentless attacks from the Israeli military. Despite being displaced themselves and losing dozens of family members and loved ones, AFSC staff in Gaza have provided life-saving aid to over 1.5 million internally displaced people. Watch the film here.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

Rise and Repair, an alliance of people and organizations advancing Indigenous rights and climate justice in Minnesota’s legislature, will gather to welcome legislators to the 2025 session Tues, Jan 14th, 10AM at the Capitol Building. More and register at https://riseandrepair-mnipl.nationbuilder.com/welcoming_our_legislators_2025; a letter stating Rise and Repair’s legislative priorities can be found here.

United Theological Seminary will offer a Social Transformation Lunch: Pre-Inauguration Conversation, Jan 14, 12:15-1PM (CT) in-person and via Zoom. Oppressive power can seek to render us powerless by creating confusion and isolating us from one another. Come to a theological conversation about our current conjuncture and what might be on the horizon nationally and globally. How are you “discerning the spirits” and what does it look like for you to act faithfully with others today? Rev. Dr. Ry Siggelkow, Director of United’s Leadership Center for Social Justice, and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis, Director of the Social Transformation program, will lead the conversation about how we can move through grief and anger to affirm the exigency of justice. Join via Zoom .

MN Interfaith Power and Light is launching Quarterly Community Gatherings in 2025, with each gathering tied to rhythm of the seasons. These Quarterly Gatherings will: offer a framing of the climate justice movement in Minnesota; provide an orientation to MNIPL’s work and campaigns in ways that speak to seasoned activists and new folks who are wondering how to become involved; and invite you into opportunities for concrete and meaningful action. Be part of this new experiment Thurs, Jan 30th, 7-8:15PM, via Zoom. Register on the MNIPL website.

OFFICE HOURS

Carolyn VandenDolder, the Meeting Coordinator, will be in the office Wed – Fri afternoons. 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).

Cathy Nagler, Children and Families Coordinator can be reached: Mon and Wed, 2:30-5PM; Thurs, 3:30-5PM; Sun, 9AM-2PM at the meetinghouse.