Membership

From CS-Quakers

From New York Yearly Meeting’s Faith & Practice:

“Each meeting has a corporate personality of its own so that it is inevitable that there will be local coloration in the interpretation of membership requirements. This should not be construed, however, as license to impose additional requirements for membership or to set aside the guidelines in this Discipline. The receiving meeting must be mindful of the fact that it acts not only in its own behalf but in the name of the Religious Society of Friends in its entirety.”

No one can join Quakers in the abstract. To become a Quaker you must join a specific Monthly Meeting, such as Chatham Summit Quaker Meeting. Anyone seeking membership in our Meeting should follow these specific Membership steps.

If you move away from this area, or find you prefer worshiping with another Quaker Meeting near by, we suggest that you Transfer your membership, so you can be fully engaged with the Meeting you attend. See Membership steps for the exact process.

If your Spiritual Journey takes you to another Religious or Denominational home, we ask that you bring closure to your Quaker phase by writing us a letter requesting Release from Membership. See Membership steps for the exact process. You can still subscribe to our publications and those of the larger Quaker bodies listed in the web screen footer. You can remain part of the Wider Quaker Fellowship. We will still joyously welcome your visits.

Our Membership steps also lists the kinds of Spiritual support we offer when an active member of our Quaker meeting dies.

If Seekers need to know and be known by the Meeting they are moved to join so both can make an informed decision.

Community is a core testimony. The local Meeting provides spiritual support. Our meditation is a corporate worship. Our process works through sharing and listening to each other’s light. Things percolate up in the Quaker world. This is an unusual dynamic in today’s hierarchical society.

Clearness for membership seeks Light on two questions: • Are the seekers spiritual beliefs consistent with Quakerism? Does the seeker feel “Quaker” describes his/her current Spiritual condition better than something else? Is the Quaker tent big enough to hold her/his BELIEFS or is it limiting? This question is one of relationship with the Divine. • Does the seeker understand the Quaker PROCESS and feel comfortable in the Chatham Summit Monthly Meeting Community. Not understanding our process or abiding by it can cause pain and disharmony. Understanding Quaker process is important for the protection of our community. This question is one of relationship with the Divine made flesh in our community. Thus, it is a question for everyone on the committee – as representatives of Meeting, not just the seeker.

PROCESS is often under-valued by new attenders – the assumption is BELIEFS are the focus. Yet, we know people grow and change Spiritually. It is essential that we maintain our sturdy, peculiarly Quaker process structure to support these journeys. Because our process (Attending to the Light in all things through queries, leadings, listening, waiting, sharing, minuting) is so valuable and different it has to be experienced to be internalized. The Society of Friends is a community of acts and ways of being, and of Faith.

If Clearness for Membership is imagined to be either a Gate-Keeping process that judges ones beliefs to be/not be suitably “Quaker” or “black-balls” membership in an exclusive club, then the scene is set-up for a pass/fail grade with membership being the “pass”. This is a real misunderstanding of a process where success is finding clarity and there is no failure – if one is not yet clear, work/learn/reflect/experience and re-convene. If one’s beliefs are in harmony with Quakers, but either one doesn’t have the time to devote to being an active member of the Community or there is no community near you or with which you feel in harmony, there is always the “Wider Quaker Fellowship” as an identifiable Quaker connection, where one can “walk with Quakers”.

If either the seeker or the committee is not clear, then the truth and integrity of the process suggests that there should be a sharing of why there was not unity and clarity. This is confidential feed back, lending light to the sense of the group.

• Once the committee (including the seeker) is clear that it has reached a decision or a conclusion to its process, it reports to the convening committee of M & C or Oversight which will bring a report to Monthly Meeting for Business.