The Continuance Institute

The Circles · C-24

Saint Paul Circle

One of the eleven circles of 1991, meeting a short walk from River House and deliberately unlike it.

Place
Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Recognised
1991
Affiliated house
River House
Assigned steward
Abdirahman Yusuf
Convener
Lucia BermudezTransit scheduler. Term began 2025; second and final consecutive year.
Ordinary meeting
Weekly, Monday evenings; the meal is fortnightly
Typical attendance
19 to 27
Access
Open to visitors

Local history

Saint Paul is the only circle in the register within walking distance of a house, and its early years were spent working out what that meant. The arrangement settled in 1995: the house keeps residential periods and the archive; the circle keeps a Monday evening and a table. Members of one are often members of the other and the two books are kept separately regardless.

The fortnightly table has run since 1997. It is cooked by the circle and served in the settlement house's own hall, under the settlement's name and not the Institute's.

The outward obligation

Food

Fortnightly table, held with the district food shelf.

A cooked meal for whoever comes, and a standing collection and sorting shift at the food shelf on the alternate week.

The forms it carries

  • The Quiet Twelve

    Twelve minutes are kept before the reading. Nothing is assigned to the silence.

  • The Repair Table

    A table, a bench, or a marked shelf where ordinary objects wait to be mended.

  • The Weather Entry

    Before the first shared meal of the month, one person writes the weather in the house book.

The shared forms, as they are kept in the houses

Also attached to River House

Elsewhere in North America