Northern Yearly Meeting’s Interim Session is THIS WEEKEND, March 14-15, hosted by Madison Meeting. Friends participating in-person and online are asked to register: https://forms.gle/UBUYHyM9nt9VoV1P8. About thirty monthly meetings and worship groups from Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Dakota, including Minneapolis Monthly Meeting, are members of NYM. Minneapolis Meeting is usually under-represented. Please consider registering and attending.

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March 16, 2025

MEETING SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM

TODAY

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

10:15 – 11:00 Quaker Voluntary Service. Hear from Mary Ellen Shaw and Cynthia Bartoo, Local Support Committee co-clerks, about what’s happening with the program locally and nationally. Zoom host – Rae Beth C.

11:15 – 12:15 meeting for worship (semi-programmed): Lolly Lijewski – speaker; Dave Bostrom – musician; care of meeting, Marilyn Johnson; Zoom host – Rae Beth C.

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

“Like snow blown before a lighted window, we pass in and out of light and shadow on the journey between now and forever. “It all happened so quickly,” we say and yet there were hundreds of eternities that opened in the eye-blink of days of the year just past. In my end is my beginning—the perpetual paradox of becoming.”
– Marv and Nancy Hiles (The Almanac of the Soul)

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

NEWS FOR MINNEAPOLIS MEETING FRIENDS

In preparation for writing the State of Society report, Ministry and Counsel Committee invites all members and attenders to a worship sharing on THIS Wed, March 19th, 7PM via Zoom, to consider: How have you experienced God [Spirit] at work in our Meeting community this past year? How does our community bear witness to Friends’ testimonies in the wider world? What concerns or hopes do you have for the future of our Meeting community? Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org by noon Wed for the link. Please come!

You are invited to join a new worship opportunity, Sharing the Spirit, open to everyone in the Meeting, every Mon, Wed, and Fri, on zoom, cameras off. This brief opportunity for worship to start the day is focused on healing, in a broad sense. Sharing the Spirit convenes at approximately 8:57 with worship beginning at 9:02 and lasting for 10 minutes. This is a time to gather and center before diving into our busy schedules. You may attend as the spirit moves you or as your schedule permits. Email office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org for the link.

Mid-Morning Program next Sunday at 10:15: George Crocker – About Power: How to Democratize Electricity Now, the history of the electric utility industry and how to correct its contribution to climate chaos and social inequities. George grew up in the Meeting.

Minneapolis Meeting’s fiscal and service year ends on March 31. Thank you to all who have supported the Meeting through your care, work on committees, and financial support. If you have outstanding reimbursements, please submit them to committee clerks so reimbursement can be made to you in this fiscal year.

Please come to an all-Meeting Experiment with Light, “Meditation on the Nation,” open to all, online, Fri, March 21, 7-8:30PM. No prior experience necessary. The meditation, guided by several prompts, takes about thirty minutes and will be followed by worship-sharing. It is hoped that, at this time of national and global crisis, this opportunity will be an additional way to further our individual and collective discernment about “way forward,” guided by the Light and witnessed by “one to the other.” ID: 830 2807 7530; passcode: 607583 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83028077530?pwd=uLF3ZkwAFn2FiPRqaUfyFC7GCE6cOt.1. Contact Diane B. with questions.

Quaker Voluntary Service invites you to a SQUARE DANCE – Sat, March 22, 7-9PM at New City Center, 3104 – 16th Ave So. Invite your family and friends! Kids are welcome! Live music and caller. Doors open at 6:45, music starts at 7PM, ends at 9 PM. Admission is free – donations accepted to support the musicians and the local QVS program.

Loaves and Fishes, March 31: 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!

Monthly Meeting in February approved co-sponsoring a MN visit by Sarah Augustine, leader of the international movement for Indigenous justice, and Director and co-founder of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition. Sarah Augustine will be offering “Embodying Solidarity with Indigenous People By Becoming Kin – A Conversation with Sarah Augustine” at United Theological Seminary, Friday night, April 4th. Doors open at 6:15, the program runs from 7-8PM. MFM joins with the MN Repair Communities (white allies to Makoce Ikikcupi,) the local Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, and a variety of local churches in sponsoring this visit. Save the date – Minneapolis Meeting Friends are encouraged to attend. Register at https://www.unitedseminary.edu/events/

Follow-up on Friends Committee on National Legislation:
~ FCNL continues to appeal to members of Congress on three issues: restoring funding for UNRWA to aid Palestinians; restoring funding to USAID international relief; and maintaining measures in the Inflation Reduction Act that support clean fuels. FCNL’s Twin Cities Advocacy team lobbies Congressional Representatives and Senators. To join, go to https://www.fcnl.org/act/join-advocacy-team. Or talk to Jim H. or Doug H.
~ Some Friends called and wrote to MN Senators to advocate for the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act, asking the US to renew donations providing humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East. Both Senators Smith and Klobuchar agreed to cosponsor the bill. Your voice was one of many that may have made a difference. Consider contacting them with thanks.
~ FCNL has Witness Wednesdays, a time for silent reflection, Weds, in March, 4-5PM. For more and to register, see https://www.fcnl.org/events
~ FCNL is offering an Intro to Advocacy webinar on March 19, 7-8PM(CT). More at https://www.fcnl.org/events/march-intro-advocacy-fcnl-0

Contributions update: Thank you, Friends, for your generous financial support! As of Jan. 31, contributions of $7,892 were needed in February and in March to meet the curtailed budget ($132,335). Contributions of $16,885 were needed in Feb and in March to meet the aspirational budget ($150,320). Checks/cash received in Feb totaled $8982.89. Contributions so far in March total $10,345. If you would like to set up automatic contributions to the Meeting, contact Mike F. or Carolyn V, co-clerks, Stewardship and Finance Committee.

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 link into browser); ID: 821 7292 0370; passcode: 661188.

LGBTQAI+ Group will NOT meet this Wed, but is working on an April event, details to come. Anyone interested to know more or wanting to be added to a notification list can email the office, office(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)minneapolisfriends.org or Bill H.

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+ Support Group – third Wednesday night; Reading Group – fourth Tuesday night; Conflict Soiree – last Tuesday afternoon.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE WIDER WORLD OF FRIENDS

Quaker Call to worship and action: March 30, 6-7:30PM. Grounded spiritual discernment brings strength to our actions. Come learn from and support one another. To receive the link, register at https://email.cloud.secureclick.net/c/15604?id=54966.355.1.a9dc6e3ee51d635514a6844e011473cc .

It’s coming – May 9-11! Sign up for your favorite Friends School Plant Sale volunteer role, NOW, at friendsschoolofminnesota.volunteerlocal.com/. Volunteers, get to shop the pre-sale! For more about the sale, see friendsschoolplantsale.com/volunteer FUN FACTS: The sale’s commitment to purchasing plants that are free of systemic pesticides means that the plants purchased won’t harm the health of our native pollinators! And, with the help of 1,734 volunteers, the sale generated more than $500,000 for the school in 2024!

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

Plan now to be part of People Camp next August 10-16! The theme will be How We WIN! Non-violent, direct action campaign planning. Author and activist, George Lakey, will be at camp to share his experiences as we investigate non-violent, direct-action campaigns and how to apply them to the work for today. People Camp is a week-long transformative experience of cooperation, community living, peacemaking , and the exploration of ideas and issues. This is a summer camp experience for the whole family and for anyone who enjoys warm, supportive community, challenging workshops, and lots of recreation in a camp setting. For more, see https://www.fnvw.org/peoplecamp

OFFICE HOURS

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).

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