Once a month following Sunday worship, we go to All Square for Grilled Cheese. All Square is a restaurant and institute that employs and educates formerly incarcerated folks to set them up for success now that they are “All Square” with the law. It’s an amazing place with about 15 different kinds of grilled cheese!
Lunch and Learn:
Stay after worship to share lunch and learn more about our Partner-in-Giving Seward-Longfellow Restorative Justice.
About Restorative Justice:
Crime damages people, communities, and relationships. Restorative justice examines the harm caused by an offense and emphasizes the needs of those impacted in developing a plan for the harm to be repaired. In contrast, the court system emphasizes laws broken and assigns “punishment” accordingly.
What happens in Seward-Longfellow:
As an alternative to court, we conduct Restorative Group Conferencing through agreements with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department. Our target clients are youths who are 18 and under in the Seward, Longfellow Cooper, Howe and Hiawatha neighborhoods and the 55406 zip code area. Our program is completely voluntary. Typical referrals are for shoplifting, theft, property damage and 5th degree assault.
Meet the Executive Director:
Hear from Michele Braley, Program Director of Seward-Longfellow Restorative Justice while we share a meal together. Michele has been with SLRJ for 12 years, and will have lots of information for us, plus ways you can get involved.
More info on what lunch will be and how you can help coming soon! Maria Anderson is our champion for this project.
This event is for women interested in connecting with each other and volunteering.
February Volunteer project
This month, we will serve and clean up a meal with Loaves and Fishes, located at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in the Seward/Longfellow neighborhood.
Contact Shelli Bakken for more information.
Women’s Group
*Our women’s group is called “Garage Ladies’ Aid ” because it was birthed out of Spirit Garage (but very open to people who do not participate in other things at Spirit Garage). “Ladies’ Aids” were invented during the civil war to provide supplies and care for wounded soldiers. Some of them stayed around and became service groups, that largely fell out of favor as women joined the work force. We’re reclaiming the title tongue-in-cheek, knowing not all of us would call ourselves “ladies” and generally aware that “aid” is a little patronizing. The name may change, but it is fun for now.
The Enneagram is a way of understanding nine basic types of people and how we behave, communicate, interpret things and respond in the world. It is a tool for understanding ourselves and the connections between the personality, psychological development and spiritual transformation.
You will learn about the Enneagram system, discover your Enneagram number, and see how that impacts our interactions with people in our lives-at work, in our inter-personal relationships and in community.
Fees cover beverages and snacks, (I know some will come right from work, so we’ll have a good spread for you) plus enneagram materials you can take home with you. A minimum of 12 participants is necessary, and a maximum of 30 will be allowed, so register today.
Future workshops will be held to learn about how the enneagram plays out in our communication, giving feedback, conflict, teamwork, leadership and transformation. These skills are bound to give you great insight into all of your inter-personal relationship. Attend one or all.
Your facilitator is Holly Johnson, who is trained in the Enneagram in Business, by Ginger Lapid-Bogda. Holly understands herself to be a Social Two with a well-traveled Eight-line, and if you don’t know what that means but are curious, this workshop is for you. Holly is also the pastor of Spirit Garage.
Our next book discussion is Angela Denker‘s “Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters who Elected Donald Trump.” Angela is a local lutheran pastor who traveled the country and spoke with Christians in red states, to find out how Donald Trump, a thrice-married, no-need-of-forgiveness, blustery billionaire who rarely goes to church, won more Evangelical Christian votes than any candidate in history on his way to winning the 2016 US presidential election. We’ll discuss this book over three sessions. Grab a bite to eat or drink in the Geek Love cafe and then head upstairs for the discussion.
The book will be available at Moon Palace Books for 20% off. You’ll find it displayed in the front of the store on the shelves with other book clubs.
Red State Christian Book Discussion Dates and assignments:
February: Intro-Chapter 4
March: Chapters 5-8
April: Chapters 9-Conclusion
In Red State Christians, readers will get an honest look at the Christians who gave the presidency to the unlikeliest candidate of all time. From booming, wealthy Orange County megachurches to libertarian farmers in Missouri to a church in Florida where the pastors carry guns to an Evangelical Arab American church in Houston to conservative Catholics on the East Coast–the picture she paints of them is enlightening, at times disturbing, but always empathetic. A must-read for those hoping to truly understand how Donald Trump became president.