Monthly Meeting Minutes
Minneapolis Friends Meeting
September 8, 2024
John Stuart, Presiding Clerk – Jeannette Raymond, Recording Clerk
1. Approval of Agenda—Clerk
The Clerk shared the proposed agenda. The agenda was approved.
The Clerk reflected that the agenda consisted of committee reports. He reminded us to be thankful for all the work committees do. Consider where you might join – these committees are open to new people and the nominating committee is going to be working to fill committees soon.
2. Approval of Minutes of August 11, 2024 – Clerk
The draft August 11, 2024 Monthly Meeting minutes were circulated in advance of meeting for business. The minutes have been circulated and a small change was made.
The August 11,2024 minutes were approved.
3. Children and Families Coordinator Report
The activities from the youth and families committee were shared. These included 15 events with Children and Families Committee’s work.
These events were mainly gathering that promoted youth involvement and learning. There were two services projects:
• Packing Food for overseas relief through Feed my Starving Children, and
• The teens baked 12 dozen cookies that we delivered to the Hallie Q Brown Shelter,
There were two events that were focused on entertainment, fellowship and community building. These kind of participation activities are going to be leading strategies moving forward.
Many events were done with the International Friends Church youth. And we held a game night, an overnight, and went to a Twins game with Twin Cities Friends Meetings. The committee is planning to continue to do outreach with the Friends School of Minnesota
The two celebratory events were the most expensive. We expected that the children would not pay, but the adults would pay.
The coordinator reflected that her role was to listen to spirit and develop skills of the children in the meeting. We have grown the program especially the youth program. She also felt that the first year you have to get to know each other and develop trust.
Elementary program served two families with a total of five children. One family has left due to conflicting activities. They are missed and loved. Often meetings are launching pads for further faith exploration.
The committee has become aware of the need for more direct communication with members of the meeting about the working details of the program. The coordinator is at the meeting house during all worship services. When she is on breaks, there have been 6 people that have helped out. Her office hours that are listed in the bulletin and will respond to phone calls and e-mails.
A committee member reflected that the meeting is discovering what matters. As we are working to clarify any confusion about our charge, we welcome input from people in the meeting.
A Friend suggested that we have music that welcomes and speaks to children.
4. Peace and Social Concerns Committee Report
Focus for August 2023 to August 2024
The committee focused on the climate crisis, both on ways to reduce the causes of man-made climate change, and ways to help mitigate the negative impacts of it.
Accomplishments
• The committee recommended to the Meeting the Winter Envelope Gift recipients. Recipients of last year’s gift were the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute and Jonathan House.
• The meeting approved the committee’s recommendation that the $1,000 carbon tax be given to the Property Committee to help pay for the insulation of the meetinghouse.
• The committee reviewed and proposed a contributions budget to the Stewardship Committee.
• The committee recommended a panel discussion by Joe Vital, of East Phillips Neighborhood Institute; Nazir Kahn, of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table; and author, professor, and nonviolent activist George Lakey. The Meeting hosted this event on September 27, 2023.
• The committee presented a hybrid program on asylum with two speakers: A man from Africa who has been waiting in the US for his asylum hearing for five years, and the director of Jonathan House, which offers temporary housing for asylum seekers.
• The committee showed the film Healing from Hate on Zoom. A discussion followed.
• The committee sponsored a short talk during business meeting about the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers.
• The committee recommended that the meeting host a benefit for the East Phillips Urban Farm. The meeting hosted the event on June 27, in cooperation with Southeast Alliance for Equity.
• The committee sponsored a talk by Jeff Halper, American Friends Service Committee.
Subgroups under the care of the committee
Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice
The Peace and Social Concerns Committee supported the work of the Deep Inner Work of Racial Justice group.
This group participated in nonviolent direct action with the Peoples’ Climate and Equity Plan; offered an experiential presentation at Fall Together in October; presented an overview with some participation during Mid-Morning Program; and requested support of our work from Meeting for Business. Although two members live far from the Twin Cities area, we maintain a healthy camaraderie.
Toward a Right Relationship with Indigenous People.
The Right Relationship with Indigenous People group has changed focus in the past year. We struggled to create a land acknowledgement, wanting a commitment to action rather than just a statement.
We decided to suspend meetings and to work on developing relationships with organizations doing work that meeting members could be invited to join. We have tried to publicize educational offerings and cultural events around Indigenous experiences and practices, including workshops on Indian boarding schools.
We thank the Peace and Social Concerns Committee for bringing a land acknowledgement statement to fruition and thank monthly meeting for recording it.
Update on involvement with the group Buffalo Star People:
The idea of MFM Quakers joining the Buffalo Star People in a campaign to heal intergenerational Lakota trauma began with a shared effort. This included a meeting member who helped transport a large tipi to the Rosebud Reservation. This provided temporary shelter for a Lakota grandmother caring for a number of small children. Soon after the tipi was set up, a small cabin for the grandmother was cooperatively constructed. The vision of the Lakota founders of Buffalo Star People, was a system of self-replicating healing circles based on their 20 years of therapy practice within Lakota and other communities. Minneapolis Friends Meeting designated a member as a traveling minister, setting up a support group and pledging support for travel expenses. This member made 7 or 8 trips in support of the campaign and kept the Meeting informed. One of the Lakota founders visited the Meeting to speak about the campaign.
Unfortunately, with the deep cultural and social devastation, organizing among Indigenous communities is extremely difficult. And this campaign has faltered. The Lakota Founder have sacrificed mightily and yet they are human beings forced to provide their own sustenance. The lines of communication have fallen silent. The meeting member has reflected on what he has learned through them. He believes we can continue educating ourselves and struggling for justice and respect for indigenous peoples.
Focus for 2024-25
In service to the Quaker Peace testimony, the committee will work for peace in cooperation with other Twin Cities peace organizations. We hope to give members exposure to local peace activism.
Challenges
We are still meeting on Zoom instead of face-to-face at the meetinghouse. We would like to have more members on our committee. The committee was thanked. So many of the events welcomed new people into the meeting house.
5. Welcoming and Outreach Committee Report
Accomplishments from the past year
• We worked on the panel that included Joe Vital, of East Phillips Neighborhood Institute; Nazir Kahn, of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table; and nonviolent activist George Lakey.
• We organized a midmorning program which featured a panel offering answers to the question, “What convinced each of us to attend Minneapolis Friends Meeting for the first time?”
• Mark Helpsmeet brought his radio show to demonstrate his approach to Deep Listening. He interviewed a meeting member about the story of the Buffalo Star People.
• To support neighborhood outreach, we organized a second annual muffin stand during the Linden Hills garage sale. This raised over $200 for Friends for a Nonviolent World.
• We sponsored the Quaker Speaker Windy Cooler, who shared her ministry on Deep Hospitality.
• We hosted the ever-popular ice cream social.
• There were six Fun with Friends gatherings, including a picnic at Judith James’ farm.
Other contributions have include setting up volunteer security for Mayim Rabim during special services, monitoring and updating the monthly MFM ad in Southside Pride Religion calendar and maintaining a bulletin board with photos of meeting events.
Challenges
Committee members’ health has been a challenge. We have dealt with this by depending on non-committee members’ help, especially with physical set up of tables and chairs.
Due to budget constraints, welcoming and outreach has no budgeted money for the coming year. We had two events planned before this was announced. The costs for these events were mainly covered by the co-clerks. This is not a sustainable practice. Events with a cost will not be planned in the future.
In addition, Friendly Meals were dropped due to a lack of participation
Upcoming points of attention
We consider welcoming that goes beyond the basics, known as deep hospitality or radical welcoming. This goes beyond accepting new people as guests with a goal of making our community more fully inclusive and equitable. We’ve been looking to the future, identifying ways our meeting can move toward being more welcoming to more people, including people we may perceive as different from us in some way. We plan to offer new ideas to the meeting.
This committee has taken under its care the LGBTQ group that is forming.
A suggestion of having a garage sale to raise money for the meeting was shared.
The clerk thanked the committee for its work.
6. Care and Counsel Committee Report
Accomplishments:
• We provided/facilitated pastoral care to many Friends. We focus on making sure there are people in contact with those facing life’s challenges, especially Friends who are isolated. We arrange rides, visits, meals, calls, and practical tasks. We hope to involve the meeting community as a whole in ministering to each other.
• We presented 3 Mid-Morning Programs:
o “Conflicts.” There is still a group holding monthly discussions on this topic, which became a concern of the Committee last year.
o “How We Hold Each other in the Light.”
o “Coping with Transitions”
• We held a second annual in-person retreat, where a member led us in a discussion of how to be with people who are ill or troubled.
• We held a joint meeting with Ministry and Counsel to plan a reasonable and compassionate solution to a problem with an occasional attender.
• We responded to a concern that many in our meeting are elderly, or, we might say, “aging.” So far, we have done the following:
o Committee members consulted with other faith communities to learn from the attention and services they make available.
o We met—via Zoom—with the Aging Resources Coordinator of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. She introduced us to many on-line materials they provide, concern issues faced by aging Friends, including 30 pamphlets, many articles, and video. In return, we shared our materials on Ethical Wills.
Challenges:
We foresee more challenges for older Friends, and their caregivers and life partners. Our own committee is not composed of spring chickens, and we hope to draw some of the energy of younger Friends. We also sense that people in our meeting value self-sufficiency to the point that they are reluctant to ask for assistance. We hope to see a greater opening-up to the help we can give each other.
Upcoming points of attention:
Four Mid-morning Programs for the coming year: “Tasks for Life Stages,” “Boundaries”, “How to Talk with Ill or Troubled People,” and “How Does It Feel to Walk in the Light?”
We are continuing discussions on services for the aging: we are planning meetings with the leadership of Mayim Rabim, and with the Aging Services Coordinator of the New York Yearly Meeting. We are exploring putting resources online. This would be useful for older Friends who participate by Zoom.
We will continue annual in-person retreats.
We open and close all our meetings with silent worship. We end each meeting with a personal story about how one of us has given or received care. We express appreciation for the gifts that everyone on the Committee brings to our work.
7. Social Committee Report
The outgoing clerk was thanked for her leadership, work, organizational skills, and thorough note taking.
Accomplishments:
This past year we resumed full use of the kitchen and lower level with complete potluck meals. In addition to the twelve-monthly potlucks, individuals from Social Committee helped with three memorial service receptions, a Peace and Social Concerns event, and a Mid-Morning gathering including youth.
We are encouraging potluck attenders to use the hand sanitizer placed at the beginning of the food line as a deterrent to spreading any illness. The passageway along the food tables has been widened for accessibility to wheelchairs. A space open for wheelchair users is routinely made available at a table near the room entrance.
Challenges:
We need to clarify and communicate our role in supporting, but not taking charge of, refreshments at events other than potlucks. Social Committee members have each expressed their willingness to be available to help with the tasks involved when an event with refreshments is planned by another committee. The familiarity of those on our committee with the location of supplies and the most efficient methods can help relieve the burden of those on other committees, but we do not want to assume the role of planning and coordinating the receptions and refreshments of other committees.
Often, we do not have enough people on the committee to help with clean up.
The committee members maintain openness to change to enhance the experience of all. We hope those attending feel welcome and comfortable with dietary, mobility or other accessibility needs accommodated as much as possible. We see the potluck gatherings as an opportunity for all, especially newcomers, to develop connection. Warmly including those who help in the event’s work conveys that they are wanted in our community.
10. Announcements and Correspondence
The Bulletin announces monthly total contributions to the meeting. It shares how much has been given and what is still needed to fulfill the budget.
We do have in kind contribution forms. Filling in these forms gives us an accurate view of what the meeting is using.
Upcoming Neetings for Business will consider the Meeting’s budget.