Clearness Committee Guidelines at Langley Hill Friends
Meeting
For Marriage, Membership, or Other Issues
November 2024
At the Meeting’s September 2024 Second Hour on membership
procedures, it was widely observed and agreed that having similar expectations
for both the person requesting the clearness committee and the members of the
clearness committee was paramount. As a result, the Care and Clearness
Committee has identified the purpose, principles, queries and resources for
clearness committees and applicants to use oriented especially for membership
considerations.
“The Clearness Committee is
a powerful method that is both simple and demanding. Done well, it is a
positive experience for everyone involved. But done poorly, it can cause hurt
and even harm. So a deep understanding of its principles and practices is
essential to using it responsibly.” Parker Palmer
Purpose: the
committee serves the dual purpose of helping the person (or couple) find
clearness that membership, marriage or life decision is the proper step and
ensuring that the meeting is ready to take the member or couple under their
care.
Overarching Principles:
- Needs
to be loving, tender, serious, and a Spirit-led process.
- Takes
the time it needs to find clearness, don’t rush, but be sensitive to the
applicant’s spiritual needs (e.g., need for marriage under the care of the
meeting if the wedding date is set).
- Expectations
should be communicated and understood by individual/couple and the committee
(e.g., the types of questions that will be explored); having a person
experienced in Quaker process is helpful.
- Deep
sharing by applicant of why gathered and seeking clearness.
- Process
is confidential.
BYM Faith & Practice on Membership
“At the clearness meeting with the applicant, loving
consideration is given to the applicant’s spiritual journey, familiarity and
agreement with Friends’ principles and practice, commitment to fulfill the
spiritual and practical responsibilities of membership, and relationship to any
other religious body.”
2013 BYM Resource for Faith & Practice on Membership
Membership Queries
· How can I actively support the meeting
community? · How can I support the Clerk of Meeting and
clerks of committees? · How am I maturing into the fullness of
membership in this spiritual community? · How does the meeting community nurture my
spiritual growth and transformation? · In what ways does the Meeting make its needs
clear to each of us?
Advices
We affirm that each Friend, not
just the Clerk, has a direct responsibility for the Meeting. Membership in the
Religious Society of Friends is a spiritual commitment. To become a member, we
expect a person seeking membership to have come experientially into general
agreement with the Society’s principles of belief and testimonies as expressed
in our Faith & Practice.
Membership carries with it
spiritual obligations. Each of us, as members, is called to participate in the
Meeting’s spiritual life and to attend worship regularly. Members need to
nurture each other’s God-given gifts and talents. As members, we are invited to
seek guidance from one another and the Meeting in discerning God’s will for
ourselves. Pray for one another.
The basic spiritual commitment of
membership creates practical obligations. The vitality of each Monthly Meeting
depends on its members’ investments of time, energy, and financial support.
Friends can strengthen their Meeting through regular participation in Meetings
for Business, service on committees or as officers, regular financial giving,
taking part in service projects under the care of the Meeting, assisting in
maintenance of Meeting property, and representing the Meeting in community and
wider Friends’ organizations.
Resources
The Clearness Committee: A Communal Approach to Discernment
by Parker J. Palmer:
https://couragerenewal.org/library/the-clearness-committee-a-communal-approach-to-discernment/
“The function of the Clearness Committee is not to give
advice or “fix” people from the outside in but rather to help people remove the
interference so they can discover their own wisdom from the inside out.”
Detailed Guidelines for a Clearness Committee by Parker
Palmer (“focus person”)
https://couragerenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Parker-Palmer_Clearness-Committee.pdf
How to Have A Quaker Clearness Committee (Quaker Speak):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvNO4-leFOg
How to Serve on a Quaker Clearness Committee (Quaker Speak):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTbdm3sLPYk
Appendix
“Voices” (from 2013 BYM Resource for Faith & Practice
on Membership)
For as in one body we have many members, and not all members
have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and
individually we are members one of another. Romans 12:4-5 (NRSV)
So the measuring line of
righteousness is in this known; …So wait to know every particular of
yourselves, to be heirs of this; and know your portion, the power of God, the
gospel fellowship, then are ye members one of another, and living stones, that
build up the spiritual household. George Fox, 1664
As Quakers, we have no creed to
recite, no confession to confess, no rituals to undergo that will reliably
bring us into the fullness of membership. But we do have a rich and inspiring
tradition; we have each other; and we have the Spirit of God which, we are
promised, will “lead us into all things.” Thomas Gates, 2004
When early Friends affirmed the
priesthood of all believers it was seen as an abolition of the clergy; in fact,
it is an abolition of the laity. All members are part of the clergy and have
the clergy’s responsibility for the maintenance of the meeting as a community.
This means helping to contribute, in whatever ways are most suitable, to the
maintenance of an atmosphere in which spiritual growth and exploration are
possible for all. Britain Yearly Meeting, 1999
Membership is costly … It is not
just about belonging, feeling accepted, feeling at home. It has also to do with
being stretched, being challenged, being discomforted … We can never be
entirely sure of where the venture will lead us … [but] the one thing we can be
sure of is that the process, taken seriously, will call us to change. Helen
Rowlands, 1952
Membership in a Quaker meeting is a
spirit-led journey of coming to know ourselves as individual-in-community, a
journey on which we experience meeting as a place of acceptance, a place of
shared values, a place of transformation, and a place of obedience. Thomas
Gates, 2004
Worthiness has nothing to do with
membership. God has already accepted us in Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends
our imperfection and is loving us forward toward a more perfect image of God’s
self. The real issue in membership is commitment on the part of both the
meeting and the applicant to remain faithful to the development and
requirements of the process within Quaker tradition. Patricia Loring, 1997
Like all discipleships, membership has its
elements of commitment and responsibility, but it is also about joy and
celebration. Membership is a way of saying to the meeting that you feel at
home, and in the right place. Membership is also a way of saying to the
meeting, and to the world, that you accept at least the fundamental elements of
being a Quaker: the understanding of divine guidance, the manner of corporate
worship and the ordering of the meeting’s business, the practical expression of
inward convictions and the equality of all before God. In asking to be admitted
into the community of the meeting you are affirming what the meeting stands for
and declaring your willingness to contribute to its life. Britain Yearly
Meeting, 1999
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