Need info, the address and/or directions?
Contact Pat: 612-920-2056

Mark your calendars!

SPRING EVENT
(free and open to the public):
"God In Human Form:
The Life & Work of Avatar Meher Baba"

Saturday, April 8, 2006
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
John B. Davis Lecture Hall in the New Campus Center
(lower level, across from the gift shop)

MACALESTER COLLEGE
1600 Grand Avenue
(SW corner of Snelling and Grand)
Saint Paul, MN

At the Spring Event, Leah will give a brief introduction, including the telling of her "coming to Baba story" followed by a viewing of "God In Human Form" - the film put together by Peter Nordeen. Afterwards, we will do a question & answer period (possibly a panel).

Bookstore will be set up at the event too.
The John B. Davis Lecture Hall seats 267 people

Next Board Meeting: April 16 @ Leah's house

News from the Webwalla:

People are finding our site at long last! I just got a message from a Baba lover in Australia looking for more information on the Sufism Reoriented video series. He passed along this newsletter for The Pumkin House for Children project. You can read all about this facility for orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children getting underway near Meherabad, and learn how to support it by clicking here to download a pdf of the newsletter.

The Annual Meeting...

Was held December 11, 2005 at Bob & Monica's. The board elections yeilded the following results:

New board members (elected on the 11th):

DJ Johnston
Rogier Gregoire

Other board members re-elected:

Pat Cook
Sandy Schwanz
Steve Cochrane
Karen Plante
Sandra Self
Leah Johnston

Officers elected and/or re-elected:

Pat Cook - President
Steve Cochrane - Vice-President
Sandy Schwanz - Treasurer (with Bob Ochtrup acting as assistant, but not an "official" board member)
Leah Johnston - Secretary


Thank you board members past, present and future!

“Meher Baba’s Life, Intimate Companions”

A 15-Session DVD Class

The Meher Baba Center of the Twin Cities (MBCTC) is offering a series of classes on Meher Baba’s life, work and message as a way for participants to focus on Baba together. The classes were created by Sufism Reoriented in Walnut Creek, California and are offered to groups of Baba lovers around the country. “Meher Baba’s Life, Intimate Companions” is one of 9 series made available by Sufism Reoriented. MBCTC sees this project as an opportunity to explore whether Sufism Reoriented’s class series are useful to our community.

CLASS FORMAT AND CONTENT

Each of the 15 classes in this series is about one hour long – videotaped teaching materials about Baba and some of his intimate companions, including Mehera, Mani, Eruch and Delia DeLeon. Some of the material in “Meher Baba’s Life, Intimate Companions” is already published, for example “God Man” and 2 of the Witness series; some of it is footage not available anywhere else. Pete Townsend’s film “Delia” is included. The classes are sequential and build on each other, for the most part.

 The format of the classes is simple: beginning typically with 10 minutes of devotional music, then the videotape, then quiet departure. It’s not a time of either discussion or socializing, but rather direct focus on Baba.   As is typical of a class structure, participants are requested to make a commitment to full attendance and to make up any class they miss before viewing the next one.

WHEN, WHERE, HOW OFTEN

Intention is to begin the series the week of January 9, 2006. Specific time will be determined in December, once people have expressed their intention to do the series. Susan Kaplan and Nancy Okerlund will host the class at their home: 3912 11th Ave. South in Minneapolis. Sufism Reoriented recommends that the classes be held weekly but every other week is also an option. Once a group is formed, a decision will be made on the frequency.

COST

Cost of a series of classes covers Sufism Reoriented’s direct costs of providing groups with course materials. The current approach is to charge a minimum fee of $30 per tape or a minimum fee of $6 per person per tape, whichever is higher, e.g. if there were 4 people in the group, the charge would be $30 per tape; if there were 10 people in the group, the charge would be $60 per tape. At $6 per class, the 15-class series is $90 per person. MBCTC’s intention is to make this opportunity available to all who are interested, not letting cost be a barrier.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BEING A MEMBER OF THIS CLASS, PLEASE CALL NANCY OKERLUND AT 612-825-5178 BY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16TH.

And even more submissions: Do you have pictures to share from MBCTC events/moments in time? Help me fill in our photo gallery! Please send them to me in .jpg format via e-mail, or if you need them scanned let me know & we'll make arrangements. My e-mail is lzecca@mn.rr.com. Thanks! ~ Lynn