Meeting for Sufferings: Tabular statement
Paul Parker reported on the tabular statement at Meeting for Sufferings
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting, told Meeting for Sufferings how Friends House had responded to a request by Yearly Meeting 2013 to look at the tabular statement. He said it was an important data collection exercise that helped to inform decision-making.
He explained there was ‘quite a lot more we could do with the existing data’ to make it more informative, such as the use of graphics, making the presentation more visual and also putting the raw data online.
In the future, he added, new questions could be asked that might reveal interesting data about the state of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain. Questions could, for example, cover the age profile of membership and the length of time Friends have been in membership.
Paul Parker stressed it was a process ‘that needs to unfold over several years’.
Friends were supportive of the recommendations.
Comments
The present tabular statement is hardly consistent with utility or truth. It is, or should be, an accurate count of those admitted to membership of a particular area meeting and for whom there is no minute terminating that membership. It is not an accurate count, perhaps by a large margin, of the people who are still taking part in the spiritual life of that meeting. The definition of an attender (An attender is one who, not being a member, frequently attends a specific meeting for worship.”) is so vague that in many cases it is not clear whether any particular person should be counted or not. How often is “frequently”? How long does a person have to be absent before they are no longer counted? My Monthly Meeting (as it was at the time) discussed the possibility of coming to a common definition for our local meetings, but there was no agreement and it was left to each meeting to decide for itself who to count. The first requirement for any counting exercise is a decision as to who should be counted and who should not.”
By DavidHitchin on 13th December 2013 - 17:04
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