The third in a series of five plenaries on the “Runway to Sessions” took place on Sunday July 19 from 2:00-5:00 PM. Very brief formal minutes are below, followed by additional notes offered by recording clerk Kri Burkander. A January 26, 2020 Threshing Session on Membership Report, PYM’s July 2020 panel discussion video and the 2019 Young Adult Friends Epistle on Membership informed the conversation. The plenary opened with worship and a land acknowledgement offered by S. Boone O’Scheyichbi, of PYM’s First Contact Reconciliation Collaborative.
Minutes from PYM’s recording clerk Kri Burkander – Saturday July 19
69 Friends gathered via Zoom this afternoon to discuss issues of membership, belonging, and commitment in our community. We expressed our appreciation for the Friends who gathered for a Threshing Session on Membership held on January 26, 2020 at Haddonfield Friends Meeting and received the report from that Gathering.
Additional Plenary notes from Kri
Jonathan Rhoads served as presiding clerk. We heard from Terri Whiteford, clerk of Administrative Council, who reminded us of our seven strategic directions, one of which focuses on broadening communities and deepening relationships, and another which is on ensuring that our communities are welcoming and safe for all people. We then spent some time in open discussion, hearing from those on the panel and others about the issues that our current practices regarding membership creates for individuals, our nominating committee, and the wider community.
We heard great enthusiasm about the panel discussion, prerecorded on YouTube. We heard more from Marissa Badgley from New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM) about the experiment that NYYM has been engaged in for some four years to re-vision the notion of membership, and offer a direct membership to NYYM.
While our current practice indicates that membership is exclusively owned by the Monthly Meeting, some Friends feel that we have more flexibility in our current practice than we make full use of. Others responded that sojourning membership and preparatory meetings aren’t necessarily viable solutions for this issue.
We heard from Friends who wanted to emphasize the importance of the notion of convincement and troubled the notion of birthright membership. There was a question about the timeline associated with membership – is it for a lifetime? Or, is it reviewed periodically? We learned that NYYM reviews yearly meeting membership every five years.
Other Friends noted that there are many in our monthly meeting communities who are not members but nevertheless serve in important roles. We were reminded that one important idea lifted up in the Young Adult Friend (YAF) epistle was the notion that if Friends are named to serve, isn’t that a recognition of our belonging?
Friends were reminded that it is important to remember that this issue is deeply intertwined with systemic oppression and racism; we are recreating the ways oppressed people are treated in our wider society and that is painful. Membership may be an issue of form versus substance and why would we choose the form over the substance? We also noted the tensions between pop-up communities and long-term commitments. While we sense urgency for change, Friends spoke to the complexity of this issue and the need to take our time discerning a path forward.
Queries on Membership
We broke into small groups to consider the following three queries:
- Is it time to consider revising our membership practices?
- If so, how should they be revised?
- What vision of commitment and belonging are we moving toward in our Quaker community?
After about 25 minutes we regathered for closing worship and a screenshot of those who chose to participate in the photo-op.
