Our Calendar
Featured Events
Helping Families This Christmas—due December 8! First Friends is sponsoring three families for Christmas this year. In the hall near the front entrance of the building, we have tags available for those of you who wish to assist in buying the gift items. If you choose a tag or a few tags, please bring the items back wrapped with the tag on it by December 8. Self-care gift basket items for the caregivers can be returned in the basket below the tree. If you have any questions, please contact Jenn C or the office.
Christmas Caroling ~ EVERYONE is invited to join us for Christmas caroling Sunday, December 7. At noon, we will meet for lunch at Puccini’s Pizza Pasta – Clearwater, 3944 E 82nd St.. After that, we will sing at 1:30 to Tom Price/others at Woodland Terrace, 689 Pro-Med Ln., Carmel (W 136th St./W. Smoky Row exit from N. Meridian). We will sing at two other locations. Carol Donahue will distribute details at Woodland Terrace for the remaining itinerary. Call or text Carol at (317) 753-4549 if you have questions.
Christmas Vespers Concert ~ Our annual Christmas Vespers is always a wonderful tradition at First Friends. We will gather this year on Sunday, December 14th at 5:30pm and our theme is “Come into Christmas: A Celebration of Song and Word” where we will prepare for the season through music performances and various readings. Plan to experience all the First Friends choirs, Christmas hymns, and a candlelit singing of Silent Night to end the night. If you’d like to attend RSVPs appreciated online at https://forms.gle/ecZ4WT9xBMowoaRf6 or contact the office. RSVPs not required so please come either way if you can.
Following the Vesper Service is the Vesper Dinner. The menu includes gluten free meat/vegetarian/vegan lasagnas and for the kiddos mac & cheese (not gluten free), salad, garlic rolls, and desserts. We are requesting donated desserts from you, especially ones that leftovers can be kept for the Christmas Tea for the following Sunday (12/21), such as brownies, cookies, bars, cupcakes, and cakes. Bring them to Fellowship Hall before Sunday meeting, or before attending the Vesper Service. We hope you will share with us in this annual tradition!
Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading would like you to join us as we discuss The Delgado Connection by Gary J. Rhyne
1980's New Orleans - A young public health investigator from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta is assigned to the Delgado Venereal Disease Clinic where he uncovers a multi-generational conspiracy orchestrated by a dangerous shadow organization that includes some of the state’s most powerful men. They will stop at nothing to satisfy their unquenchable thirst for power and the indiscriminate destruction of Louisiana’s celebrated way of life.
We will gather and via Zoom at Gary and Kathy R’s home starting at 7 pm EST on Tuesday, December 30th led by the author, Gary Rhyne.
Free eBook Promotion: The Delgado Connection by Gary J. Rhyne eBook version will be offered for free December 1st through December 5th at https://a.co/d/405qqx7
The eBook is also available on the Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Quaker Q&A: Worship, Process, and Values ~ Do you have questions about Quaker worship or about how committees are organized? Do you wonder why people stand up and speak in waiting worship? Do you wonder why it's called "waiting worship"? Or do you want to know what "meeting for business" means and why does it happen every month? Find out the answers to these questions and more at QUAKER Q&A, a two-part panel discussion on Quaker worship and Quaker practices. The first session will focus on worship and Quaker spirituality. Bring your questions and your appetite on February 1ST at 11:30AM. In the second session on February 8TH, the panelists will discuss meeting for business and how the meeting functions. Registration will open in January.
Centered Voices and Inner Wisdom: A Journey Through the Enneagram Centers — Our next annual women’s retreat will be on February 7, 2026, from 10:00 AM–4:30 PM at the Seton Cove Spirituality Center, 2025 Dugan Dr, 46260 (behind St. Vincent Hospital). Registration is now open: REGISTER HERE! The retreat cost is $50 and includes snacks, drinks, and lunch. Women who wish to extend their experience with a private overnight retreat on Saturday may stay at Seton Hall for an additional $100 (no meals included). Attendees are welcome to bring a favorite snack to share with the group. Scholarships are available for the daytime retreat—contact Beth.
In this retreat, we’ll explore the Enneagram’s three Centers of Intelligence through story-based interviews, music, and shared reflection. Rather than a lecture-based retreat, this day invites women to speak from personal experience, listen deeply, and discover how each of us embodies these Enneagram patterns in uniquely meaningful ways. Expect a day of sacred conversation and personal reflection that engages your whole self—head, heart, and body.
For those spending the night, Sam Ryan will offer an optional one-hour Shake Your Soul session, a somatic dance and movement practice that is accessible to all bodies and wonderfully grounding, creative, communal, and fun.
While this retreat does not require prior Enneagram knowledge, participants are encouraged to have a basic understanding of the system and their leading type. Excellent introductory resources include:
• The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson
• The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr
• The Essential Enneagram by David Daniels & Virginia Price
Happy Holidays from Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading! Oak Leaf meets on the last Tuesday of the month in the Parlor. If you’d like to be on the monthly email list, contact the office at office@indyfriends.org. We’re happy to share the 2026 book list:
January 27 ~ Wintering by Katherine May
February 24 ~ The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall
March 31 ~ A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
April 28 ~ The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
May 26 ~ Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
June 30 ~ Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
July 28 ~ Twice: A Novel by Mitch Albom
August 25 ~ West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
September 29 ~ My Friends by Fredrik Backman
October 27 ~ What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
November 24 ~ A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
December 29 ~ A Home in the Woods by Howard Johnson