Gala Fundraiser for Changing Lives - Liberia

​Thursday, May 8 from 6 to 8 PM. This event is produced by PACT (Partnership for Community Transformation) and it will include sharing of stories and songs from the 2025 Travel Group, West African cuisine, and a silent auction. www.pact-mn.org
Book Discussion Group

​Join our Land Acknowledgment and Beyond group as the work through The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. 

The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

Because the book is written in a less conventional style, we propose a 5-month discussion schedule, which we hope will allow for less dense reading assignments and richer discussion of what promises to be a rich and interesting read. We will continue meeting on the second Tuesday of the month and meeting dates are: May 13 and June 10, 2025 - 7:00 to 8:30 PM

​Leaders will be at New Branches on Sunday with sign up sheets. We will also have paperback editions of The Sentence, purchased from Birchbark Books, on hand for those looking to purchase a copy ($21.00 - cash or check accepted). Please contact [email protected] for more information.
New Branches Coffee Hour

There's a wonderful opportunity for conversation and treats with New Branches faith communities on the second Wednesday of each month. The next event is Wednesday, May 14 at 10:00 AM in the Commons. 
Faith and Life Conversation - Network Weaving

​Join us Wednesday, May 14 at 5:30 pm for a 90-minute interactive workshop introducing network weaving—a practice of building relationships, fostering collaboration, and cultivating Beloved Community. Rooted in our shared faith commitments to justice, and inclusion, we’ll explore how we might intentionally deepen ties, and encourage small collaborative projects to build an ever-growing web of community care. Through storytelling, relationship mapping, and hands-on reflection, we’ll uncover the networks already present in our community and learn simple tools to strengthen the bonds between us.
 
This workshop is presented by Kristin Johnstad, ordained lay clergy in the Zen Plum Village tradition and part of the Blooming Heart Sangha that meets at New Branches. Over the last year Kristin has gotten involved with several New Branches events and now offers her professional work as a network weaver to New Branches.