Search Results for: membership

• Resignation by the individual
  • Members may find that they are no longer in accord with the faith and practice of Friends or no longer wish to be actively involved in their monthly meeting. Such members may be encouraged to seek the assistance of the pastoral care committee or others in the meeting in examining their beliefs and practices and the reasons for disagreement or lack of involvement with Friends. If no resolution results, they may resign from the Religious Society of Friends by submitting a letter of resignation to the clerk of their meeting.
  • When a member submits a letter of resignation, the meeting may still take action. A committee appointed by the pastoral care committee or from the meeting at large may visit the person, inquire in love and forbearance into the cause of the proposed resignation and, if appropriate, endeavor to bring this person back into the fellowship of Friends. A resignation may be accepted without appointing such a committee if the meeting is satisfied that the member’s decision will not be altered by further efforts.
  • When the meeting accedes to a member’s decision to resign, a minute is prepared stating that this Friend is released at their own request. The individual is no longer a member of the Religious Society of Friends. The letter informing the former member that their decision to resign has been accepted will show sensitivity to the person leaving membership.
• Release by the monthly meeting
  • When a member disregards the obligations of membership, exhibits lack of interest, fails to reply to communications from the pastoral care committee or passes out of the knowledge of the meeting, it is clear that the member no longer values being part of the life of the meeting. In such cases it is normally the task of the pastoral care committee to attempt to restore interest and involvement. The meeting may appoint a special committee to deal with inactive members.
  • If continued efforts prove unavailing, the meeting prepares a minute noting the circumstances and recording removal of the individual from membership. The clerk of the meeting promptly sends notice of this action to the individual.
  • In the case of a Friend whose actions seem out of harmony with the standard of conduct appropriate to the Religious Society of Friends, the meeting, primarily through the pastoral care committee, may seek to renew the commitment of the member to Friends practice. If this effort fails, and if the committee believes that it can accomplish nothing further, it should report this to the monthly meeting, which may appoint a special committee to make further attempts to reach a satisfactory solution.
  • If all these efforts are to no avail, the meeting is expected to take steps toward removal of the Friend from membership. The pastoral care committee or a special committee will prepare in writing a proposed minute of removal recommending such action. When the minute is received by the monthly meeting, the meeting clerk will convey a copy to the person involved, and indicate that further action will be deferred to a future meeting for business. The member who is subject to removal is invited to explain their position to the meeting in person or in writing.
  • After the member has had an opportunity to explain their position, if the monthly meeting still believes that the membership of the Friend in question should be terminated, it then approves the minute of removal and the individual is notified of the action. It is expected that all dealings involving removal from membership will be handled with the utmost patience, forbearance, and consideration, for the sake of both the individual and the meeting.
  • A person whose membership has ended either by resignation or by action of the monthly meeting, and who subsequently desires to join either the same or a different meeting, may do so by following the procedure outlined earlier for application for membership.

Friends who live at a distance from their own monthly meeting but near another may find it useful to transfer their membership to the nearer one. On occasion, a Friend may request a transfer for reasons other than a change of residence. The procedure indicated below applies in every case. To initiate the transfer process, the Friend requests a letter of transfer from his/her current meeting to the new meeting. These two meetings each have responsibilities regarding the transfer.

• Duties of the meeting from which the member is transferring.
  • When a meeting receives an application for transfer, the meeting clerk asks the clerk of the pastoral care committee to prepare a letter of transfer, recommending the Friend to the care of the meeting to which transfer is requested. (If the pastoral care committee is concerned about the applicant’s behavior or commitment to the Religious Society of Friends, this recommendation may be qualified or the request for transfer may even be denied.)
  • If the meeting approves the application for transfer, the meeting clerk signs and forwards the letter to the receiving meeting. A copy of the letter is also prepared for the records.
  • When the meeting issuing the transfer receives acknowledgment that the new meeting has accepted the Friend into membership, it terminates the Friend’s membership, noting its action in the minutes.
• Duties of the meeting to which the Friend is transferring.
  • The clerk of the meeting to which a member is being transferred will acknowledge receipt of the letter of transfer.
  • The clerk refers it to the pastoral care committee which in turn recommends action to the monthly meeting. If there is ground for serious objection to the transfer, the letter is returned to the meeting which issued it. If there is no objection, the meeting accepts the transfer and records the Friend as a member, and its clerk reports this action to the issuing meeting.
  • Following a transfer, the meeting will appoint two or more Friends to welcome the new member, including an invitation to attend meetings for worship and business, serve on committees and otherwise fulfill the responsibilities of membership.
• Duties of recorders concerning letters of transfer.
  • When notified of the approval of the letter of transfer by the accepting meeting, the recorder of the meeting issuing the transfer changes that meeting’s membership records and reports this action to the yearly meeting.
  • The accepting meeting’s recorder adds the new member to the meeting’s membership records and notifies the yearly meeting of this action.

When a sense of commitment between an attender and a Friends meeting is strong, a member of the meeting may encourage the attender to apply for membership or the attender may initiate that process. In some cases, members of a family may apply together. There are several steps involved in the application process, some taken by the meeting and some by the attender.

1. The attender sends a written request to the clerk of the meeting, stating why he/she is moved to join the Religious Society of Friends.
2. Typically, the clerk reads the applicant’s letter at the next meeting for business and then refers the application to the pastoral care or membership committee. That committee promptly appoints a clearness committee to visit the applicant.
3. The clearness committee is expected to make this visit as soon as possible. During the visit, the committee members and the applicant explore together, in a probing and candid manner, fundamental questions of religious faith and practice. The clearness committee is expected to explain both the responsibilities of membership in a Friends meeting and the nature of the commitment the meeting makes when it accepts an application for membership. The applicant will be encouraged to share expectations concerning the meeting and the significance of membership.

Among the questions the committee might ask the applicant are:

• What are some milestones in your spiritual journey? How do you expect membership in the meeting to help you in this journey?
• How familiar are you with Friends faith and practice? Which of these particularly attracted you to Friends? Which aspects do you find puzzling or disturbing?
• Do you welcome participation in a religious community whose unity of spirit coexists with a diversity of beliefs? Are you prepared to join a meeting community which includes people whose perspectives differ considerably from your own?
• Have you read and reflected on the queries and advices? Which of these do you find most helpful? Which do you find puzzling or disturbing?
• How closely are you in harmony with Friends testimonies and with Friends’ work for peace and social justice?
• What gifts do you believe you might bring to the meeting community? In what ways would you like to share your time and talents with the meeting?
• Are you willing to provide the meeting with financial support in order to help the meeting carry out its activities and fulfill its responsibilities?
• Do you understand the relationship among the monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings? Are you aware of and willing to meet our expectation of financial support for programs, services and facilities associated with the quarterly and yearly meetings?

1. The clearness committee will report to the pastoral care committee regarding the outcome of its visit with the applicant for membership.
2. If there is a positive recommendation from the clearness committee to the pastoral care committee, and if that committee concurs, it will recommend at the next meeting for business that the meeting accept the application for membership.
3. Action by the meeting may be postponed until a later session to give time for members to become better acquainted with the prospective member.
4. If the meeting approves the application for membership, it will minute its decision and appoint two or more Friends to welcome the new member.
5. The name of the new member and other pertinent information will be given to the meeting recorder for the meeting’s records, and will be reported to the quarterly and yearly meetings.

The desire of an attender to become a member is generally a cause for rejoicing. However, the pastoral care committee may advise the meeting to postpone acceptance or even to reject an application if there is good reason to do so, such as an applicant’s inflexible disagreement with some significant aspect of Friends faith and practice. In cases where the pastoral care committee recommends postponement of a decision or rejection of an application, and the meeting agrees, the committee should maintain sympathetic communication with the applicant, clearly explaining the reason for the hesitancy and seeking to help remove it. If and when the committee judges the applicant to be ready for membership, it should then encourage the meeting to consider and accept the application for membership.

If a person whose residence is remote from meetings of Friends wishes to become a member, the meeting may consider carefully whether the applicant’s needs, as well as those of the meeting, will be served by membership at a distance or whether the person’s spiritual needs can be met in another way.

The monthly meeting is the final authority in all matters concerning membership, and all membership occurs in the monthly meeting. A person joining a particular Friends meeting becomes thereby a member of a quarterly meeting, the yearly meeting, and the Religious Society of Friends.

Membership establishes a mutual commitment between members and their Friends meeting. On the one hand, membership commits the meeting to provide a spiritual home for its members and corporate support for their efforts to live in harmony with the faith and practices of Friends. Many meetings establish scholarship funds for members to attend workshops, retreats and other opportunities for spiritual nourishment, as well as scholarships for members’ children to attend Friends schools. Meetings also support members faced with difficult, potentially life-changing decisions by forming clearness committees to assist them in their discernment process. Meeting support may also extend to elements of a member’s life, such as economic insecurity, that could interfere with full and active participation in the meeting. Most important, the meeting provides regular opportunities for corporate worship, spiritual growth and other activities that enable the meeting to be a genuine community of faith for its members.

On the other hand, membership commits members of the meeting to live in spiritual unity with each other and to engage as fully as possible in the life of the meeting. Specifically, this means regular participation in meetings for worship and for business, financial support of the work of the meeting, and service to the meeting as an officer or on one of its committees. Membership also entails giving time, skills and material support to the meeting and its activities such as religious education, pastoral care and witness to the broader community. In Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, responsibility for the full range of monthly, quarterly and yearly meeting activities rests with the membership.

People from other religious backgrounds or with no religious ties often visit Friends meetings. Meetings welcome all visitors, giving continuing attention to those who return frequently. Meetings may provide these regular attenders with spiritual support and guidance as they seek to learn more about Friends faith and practice. Regular attenders may be encouraged to attend business meetings and, at the discretion of the meeting, to serve on committees. These individuals can then witness Friends particular approach to worship and the conduct of meeting business, as well as the structure, finances and witness of the meeting. Regular attenders are invited to attend sessions of quarterly and yearly meeting and the annual summer gatherings of Friends General Conference. Meetings provide regular attenders with a copy of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s current Faith and Practice, and with information about the major spiritual writings of Friends and the history of Friends, as well as information regarding Friends organizations.  (See Section V. Friends and Some of Their Organizations.)

Those attenders who participate regularly in meeting activities, especially meeting for worship, and who demonstrate a growing understanding and appreciation of Friends faith and practices are encouraged to apply for membership. (See Section VII. Procedures for Membership.)

As noted above, membership entails a major commitment to participate in a particular community of Friends. Friends understand that membership is located in a single monthly meeting and have developed procedures so that individuals may easily transfer their membership from one meeting to another, or may become sojourning members during lengthy periods of visitation. Friends recognize that fulfilling the commitments of membership in two different faith communities at the same time is usually impractical. Should an applicant for membership in a monthly meeting wish to maintain membership in or affiliation with another religious body, the clearness committee established to review the application for membership will explore with sensitivity the reasons that underlie this desire.

Children Friends consider children from birth to maturity to be full participants in the life of the meeting, to be nurtured in their spiritual development and understanding of the faith and practice of Friends and guided and encouraged into Quaker adulthood. The meeting can help children prepare for the decisions they must make about friendships, peer pressure, recreation, education, career, and military or alternative service. As they mature, those who have received this care from their meeting will become increasingly conscious of the full meaning of membership in the Religious Society of Friends so as to make their own decisions regarding membership. The meeting provides an atmosphere of inclusion, care, love and recognition—in short, a spiritual home—for all young people in the meeting, regardless of their membership status or that of their parents.

A person of any age may apply for membership in a Friends meeting. Some people are spiritually ready for membership early in their lives; others are ready only as adults. Meetings are encouraged to respect parents’ sense of what is best for their children regarding membership. Parents who are members may, at the time of their child’s birth or adoption or later:

• Request membership for their child;
• Request associate membership for their child (see below);
• Not request any enrollment for the child.

Parents who are members of different meetings must decide which meeting records the membership of the child. When only one parent is a member, children may be recorded upon the request of that parent and with the permission of the other or, under unusual circumstances, upon the request of only one parent. Where there is only one legal parent, that member may request membership or associate membership for the child. Meetings are urged to recognize the diversity of family patterns, with sensitivity to the concerns of all involved.

Parents requesting membership for their child are expected to raise the child as a Friend in the meeting community. The parents and the meeting can then help the child to grow gradually into the responsibilities of membership and encourage the child when ready to take on specific responsibilities—such as service on a meeting committee. The meeting has an obligation to those recorded as members at a young age to ensure that as they reach adulthood they will thoughtfully consider their own commitment to membership.

Many meetings offer associate membership for children, with the full responsibilities and privileges of membership up to their adulthood, that age to be determined by the meeting. (For yearly meeting statistical purposes associate members will not be recorded after their 21st birthday.) Associate members may request full membership when they are ready, and the Friends meeting’s role is one of active encouragement.

In the past, many Friends meetings automatically recorded as members (called “birthright” Friends) all newborn children whose parents were members, but this practice is inconsistent with the goal of a religious society of convinced Friends and has been abandoned.

Transfer of Membership A Friend who moves to a new area or is drawn to worship with another Friends meeting may request a transfer of membership. The transfer process entails specific responsibilities for both the sending and the receiving monthly meetings. (See Section VII. Procedures for Membership.)

Sojourning Members Friends may attend a meeting because they have moved temporarily into its vicinity, but may not wish to give up membership in their home meeting to which they expect to return. In such a case, a Friend may ask their home meeting to send a letter to the meeting attended, asking it to recognize the Friend as a sojourning member. Sojourning Friends may accept all roles that the host meeting sees fit to assign to them. However, they are not counted in the statistical reports of the host meeting and their sojourning membership ends when they leave that area.

Joining Other Religious Bodies If a member wishes to leave the Religious Society of Friends to join another religious body, they are expected to notify their monthly meeting. The meeting may give them a letter stating their good standing in the Religious Society of Friends. The meeting records the resignation in the minutes of the meeting.

Membership Records In Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, it is the practice for monthly meetings to maintain records of their members, including transfers of membership to and from the meeting, resignations, and new members. The recorder of each meeting keeps accurate information on the membership status of each active member and shares it with the quarterly meeting and yearly meeting as requested.

Inactive Members Some individuals may wish to retain membership in the Religious Society of Friends even though they have not been active in any Friends meeting for many years. At its discretion, a meeting may carry inactive persons on its membership rolls. Long-term nominal membership is generally discouraged, however, except when active meeting participation is not possible because of poor health, when residence is so far from any meeting (so that transfer of membership or sojourning membership is not feasible), or for some other compelling reason.

Revision of Faith and Practice is initiated only by action of the yearly meeting in session. Any major revision places heavy demands upon those individuals entrusted with this responsibility, and careful consideration should be given to their selection, the expected extent and process of the revision, and the staff and financial support needed.

Proposed revisions will be widely circulated and discussed prior to formal acceptance and publication by the yearly meeting. To assure full opportunity for consideration by the whole membership, a proposed revision of Faith and Practice will be presented to yearly meeting for a preliminary (first) reading and may not be finally accepted until a year later.