‘Our processes are founded on principles that go to the heart of our spirituality.’
Body language: Deborah Rowlands on the Yearly Meeting’s consultation on membership
‘Looking at membership in isolation risks throwing the baby out with the bath water.’
As many readers will know, Meeting for Sufferings is engaged in a consultation about membership. Working through Area Meetings, the consultation asks some questions that seem simple, but they go to the heart of our sense of belonging: Why do we have membership? What is it for? Is it still necessary? If yes, what form(s) could it take?
Area Meetings are asked to ensure as many people as possible share their thoughts, whether members or attenders. But if this consultation is done through our normal and officially-recognised communication channels – Area and Local Meetings for Business – it feels unlikely that it will gather a diverse range of views. The minority of Friends who attend Meetings for Business are usually members – those who are comfortable with this way of doing business, the same pool from which Meeting for Sufferings representatives are drawn. Area Meetings also vary in their size and pattern of meeting together; many may not be able to devote time and energy to such a national consultation.
Even where an Area Meeting works imaginatively to encourage people other than ‘the usual suspects’ to contribute, from their perspective it may not feel very inviting or inclusive. The book of the 2022 Swarthmore Lecture by Helen Minnis, just published, has some telling things to say about this, and I find the imagery contained in the title (Perceiving the Temperature of the Water) extremely useful in this context too. Those of us who are used to swimming around in the water of Britain Yearly Meeting will think it’s just fine – we would like to welcome everyone in to swim with us. We may not realise that the water is not the right temperature for everyone. How can we hear the voices of those who say it is far too chilly for their liking?
At Meeting for Sufferings in December, we received a report acknowledging that Meeting for Sufferings is not necessarily a good communication channel, nor diverse or representative of the range of Quakers in Britain. This may hamper its role in discernment. A quotation from this report may be helpful in relation to the current consultation: ‘The concepts of diversity and participation in the context of Quaker discernment are not completely straightforward. Our discernment process does not ask us to hear from all “sides” on an issue and then decide which is the best option. It asks us to listen to what God wants us to do, recognising that anyone present might be able to articulate some or all of that for us. However in practice the presence of Friends with different spiritual experiences and insights is often helpful.’
I hope that the consultation can be forward-looking, responding to the needs of the future, enabling Meeting for Sufferings to make a decision in right ordering, in a true sense, with input from all concerned.
It is encouraging to note that Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC) has a working group looking at new ways of belonging. Its minute refers to an article by Jon Martin in the Friends Quarterly, which tells us that, for many people, their Quakerism does not have a living relationship with their Local, and still less Area, Meeting. This has become increasingly true as many of us have developed new networks and online worshipping communities over the pandemic. How can we acknowledge this lively sense of belonging and adapt our structures to accommodate it, rather than assume the Local Meeting should be the main place we ‘belong’?
As the minute states: ‘Future changes should not be considered to be either the old structures or a new one but an enhancement of our experience of being a Quaker.’
This sounds exciting but we do need some structure to hold us together as a Society. At the moment, the structure is full of interconnecting parts, which include membership and a feeling among many of us that service to our Quaker community is a fundamental way in which we express, or even find, our sense of belonging.
What we have called our church government describes these interlocking processes. The Book of Discipline Revision Committee has published some draft sections of the new book which help, and one is about nominations, a process which for many is intimately connected with their sense of commitment and belonging. As the draft text says: ‘Through these processes, we seek to make appointments to roles in a way that builds up our community, uses everyone’s gifts, and shares authority and responsibility widely.’
Our processes are founded on principles that go to the heart of our spirituality. Looking at membership in isolation risks throwing the baby out with the bath water or seeing it in a too secular way. Nominating Friends for roles rather than asking for volunteers, and serving for time-limited periods, should enable us to change more easily, but sometimes it feels clumsy and excluding, perpetuating the same ‘in crowd’. In Crynwyr Cymru (Quakers in Wales) we are experimenting with structures that ensure accountability and authority, for example when making public statements on behalf of Friends, and which use the skills and talents of individuals on short-term projects. These might include editing or translating a document, designing a new poster, or writing a blog.
In the Friends Quarterly last year I suggested that we needed to free up our processes to be more inclusive and more joyful, to help bind our whole community. Where does membership fit in here? I hope we can find an answer that reflects our calling to be members one of another: in the old Quaker phrase, to be the beloved community, committed to working together to the promptings of the Spirit.
‘The life of a religious society consists in something more than the body of principles it professes and the outer garments of organisation which it wears. These things have their own importance: they embody the society to the world, and protect it from the chance and change of circumstance; but the springs of life lie deeper, and often escape recognition. They are to be found in the vital union of the members of the society with God and with one another, a union which allows the free flowing through the society of the spiritual life which is its strength.’ (Quaker faith & practice 10.04).
Comments
This is a very thoughtful piece that I appreciated, thank you Deborah. I am a rather crumby Quakerand as I have not attended many meetings for Worship since I left London and moved to the South West. However, I have always thought that the importance of sitting in Meeting for Worship among Friends from all walks of life and experience is of great importance. During Covid our French Club met on Zoom every week and we managed after a fashion. But nothing matches sitting with Friends and listening to ministry while being aware of the body language of the individual and the group rather than simply looking at an isolated head on a screen.
Communication is something Friends have often been very good at, accepting that it is not possible for all, I hope we decide to encourage more attendance at Meetings so that members can listen and talk to each other and not to a computer or other device.
I wonder if you and others agree?
By Martin Turner on 9th March 2023 - 17:57
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