As Way Opens
Pictures have come down and are wrapped, boxes are being packed, belongings are being sorted, and the choice of movers is being made. Our home has been sold, and a moving date is set. My office is being boxed up, files sorted, and decisions about what would be helpful to leave for the new pastor are being made. It is clearly time to say goodbye. But before I go, I must also say… thank you.
First Friends Meeting and its members, attenders, and friends, has been a great gift to me. I have been blessed with many challenges, joyful experiences, friendships, and lessons that have shaped me and helped me to grow more deeply in faith. I have so many stories! So many remembrances will travel with me in my mind and heart as I go. You have been a precious spiritual family to me and Jon, and we have loved sharing you with our own family as they have come for visits.
Jon and I never thought we’d spend five years working separately and commuting to see one another, but God has sustained us both, in Iowa and Indiana, as we’ve done the work God has called us each to do. Now we look forward to returning to our home in Iowa where we’ll live this coming year. We are already considering areas in Oregon and Washington where we might settle closer to our family in the not too distant future.
Thank you for loving and caring for me and Jon in so many ways. Thank you for trusting me with your questions and concerns. Thank you for ministering with me as we have tried to share God’s continuing revelation of love and light with all those whose lives we’ve touched. Thank you for accepting the challenge of being intentional in our attention to God’s life in each one of us. Thank you for so many things…
Ruthie
Announcements, Reports, & Opportunities
WOODS WORK DAY CANCELLED – The Meditational Woods work day scheduled for this Saturday, March 18, has been cancelled. The ground is currently too cold and hard. We may reschedule for the following week, weather pending. Keep an eye out for updates, or check with Mary B. or Mindy S.
Interested in growing some vegetables this year? Free to a good home: mature asparagus roots and a healthy clump of rhubarb. Please contact Barbara O. if interested!
Hear our own Dan R. and Bill P. sing! You’re invited to hear Dan and Bill sing in Mendelssohn’s Elijah as part of the Indianapolis’ Symphonic Choir’s 80th Anniversary Celebration! It has been proclaimed as “one of the greatest choral works ever.” Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah anchors the Symphonic Choir’s 80th Anniversary Season and features world-class soloists. Tickets are on sale now and start at just $15. This is one night only, Friday, March 17 at 8:00PM at The Palladium.
The Pastoral Search Committee invites you to contemplate and provide feedback on the following query this week: In your opinion, how can our new pastor best actively and visibly support the Meeting's stewardship program? Please provide your thoughts on the query (or any other feedback on the search process) to Marshelle B. , who will be looking forward to hearing from you just outside the Meeting Room after Meeting for Worship this Sunday, March 19! You can also provide feedback on queries to the office.
"Would you like to help a guy earn his Eagle?" Purchase Spring Flowers, Vegetables & Herbs and Help Support an Eagle Scout Project! Fritz C. has begun his Eagle Scout project and needs to raise funds for a trail of trees that he will be working on this summer at Koteewi Park. Visitors to the park will be able to follow the trail and learn about 16 native Indiana trees and how the Native Americans used them as tools, clothing and even transportation. You can place orders online here: https://goo.gl/YinO6b. Thank you for your support!
Meridian Street Preschool Co-op Movie Night!
What: MSPC family movie night
When: Friday March 24th, 6pm
Where: MSPC/FF basement
Cost: $10/ family
RSVP: office@indyfriends.org by Wed March 22
Please join MSPC for a fun filled evening. Pizza, drinks and the viewing of Toy Story are all included in your "admission". Wear your p.j.'s and bring your favorite stuffed animal too. Feel free to bring blankets to stretch out on also.
Ruthie’s goodbye celebration is coming up on Sunday, March 26th. We will have a pitch in lunch and program right after Meeting for Worship. Please bring a dish; sides and salads for last names A-M, desserts for N-Z. (Feel free to bring more than one dish!) If you can, we’re asking that you send in a copy of a photo of meeting activities and people during Ruthie's tenure (for her to keep). Send or drop off your photos to the office; if you’re unable to get the photos to the office in time you may bring the pictures that day, to put on a board at the party. We will also be collecting notes for Ruthie in a memory jar. Please share fond memories you have, and be sure to mark on your note whether it may be read aloud. To show our appreciation for Ruthie’s time and energy here at First Friends, we are also welcoming any love offering or contribution for this purpose. Please send in your contribution to the office or with your regular offering identifying it is for Ruthie.
April Worship Schedule
Come join us in April for guest speakers and a wonderful time of worship sharing!
April 2nd – Message by Beth Henricks
April 9th – Message by Dan Lee
April 16th – Message by Beth Henricks
April 23rd – Message by Bruce Birchard, former General Secretary of Friends General Conference and the Clerk of the Right Sharing of World Resources Board
April 30th - Worship Sharing
‘Disturbing the Peace’ Film Showing ~ All are invited to attend a film debut at West Newton on April 5th. DISTURBING THE PEACE, a film that follows former enemy combatants - Israeli soldiers from elite units and Palestinian fighters - who have joined together to challenge the status quo and say “enough." This film reveals their transformational journeys from soldiers committed to armed battle to nonviolent peace activists, leading to the creation of Combatants for Peace. It will be premiered in Indianapolis at West Newton Friends Meeting 6800 S. Mooresville Rd, Indianapolis on April 5th. The evening will begin with a soup supper at 6 p.m. and then follow with the film and discussion at 7:00 p.m. The film runs approximately 90 minutes. There is no charge for the film or the supper, but donations will be accepted to help pay for the food and film. A trailer for the film is available here: https://youtu.be/A95PDQWr4xs
Western Yearly Meeting is having its annual Spring Retreat at Quaker Haven Camp on April 28th-April 30th. This year’s retreat will be led by Joyce Shroeder, M.S.. She was the keynote speaker at the Earlham School of Religion Leadership Conference in both 2012 and 2015. In 2014, She was the Plenary Speaker at New York Yearly Meeting’s Summer Sessions. Working as a consultant, she has a masters degree in Organizational Development and Leadership. She has been a member of Purchase Friends Meeting (New York YM) for nearly 20 years. This year’s retreat theme is Flex Your Mind, Build Your Body. For more information or to register, please visit https://www.westernyearlymeeting.org/wymretreat or contact Della Stanley-Green (dellasgwym@gmail.com). The registration deadline is April 15.
FCNL Capital Campaign ~ Friends Committee on Legislation (“FCNL”) is presently promoting its capital campaign “The World We Seek: Now is the Time.” This campaign began on July 1, 2012 and runs until June 30, 2017. The goal is to raise $15 million for the following purposes: 1) Strengthen and expand its work with young adults; 2) Create a Quaker Welcome Center; 3) Advance FCNL priorities and presence through the Friend in Washington program: and 4) Establish stronger connections between Friends’ local activism and federal lobbying. You can find out more about this soon-to-end capital campaign in the letter on the bulletin board in the Witness and Service area or by going to FCNL.ORG. You can also talk with Beth H who is Clerk of this capital campaign.
The early-bird registration deadline for the Friends United Meeting Triennial is coming soon! Register before March 31st and save $30! To register, please visit: https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1877598
Every three years, the global community of Friends United Meeting gathers to celebrate our life together, to grow in our ability to serve the world, and to worship Christ our Lord! Along with our Triennial host, Great Plains Yearly Meeting, FUM invites and welcomes Quakers from all over the world to join us in Wichita, Kansas, on July 12–16, 2017. We will meet on the campus of Friends University, and look forward to seeing you there. Messages will spring from Thomas Kelly’s book, “The Eternal Promise.”