Support and nurture
Jane Muers discusses experiences of moving into membership
Our Local Meeting has recently welcomed three new members – Friends who had been part of our Meeting community for some two to five years. It was a ‘joyful occasion’ (Quaker faith & practice 11.12). The process of their moving into membership had been a very positive experience. We had thought carefully about this process, referring to chapter eleven in Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p) as it appears in the fifth edition.
Qf&p says: ‘Variety and flexibility in procedures are needed to reflect individual and local circumstances. Each Area Meeting will develop one or more such procedures.’ Our Area Meeting had done this some years ago and we built on this flexibility.
It was important to involve the Local Meeting in the process. Qf&p outlines three ‘stages of the process’: nurture and support, initiating the process and discerning the rightness of the application. We considered each of these. Groups in the Meeting, involving newer and established Friends, had met to explore Quakerism together through the Woodbrooke study pack Becoming Friends. There was lively discussion and questioning, building on relationships formed through other Meeting activities.
A session, open to any Friends, was held to discuss membership. Lots of questions were asked about the commitment involved in membership. Reassurance was given that there is no fixed financial contribution associated with membership and that it is not primarily about taking on roles. We highlighted what each person present already contributed to the Meeting.
A turning point was the statement that the Meeting would ‘sponsor’ any Friends present through the process of becoming a member. The individual would move with the support of the Meeting; we would journey together. There was a wonderful smile of apparent relief on one Friend’s face. ‘Yes, I am ready to become a member,’ was the immediate response. ‘I am ready too’, was another more tentative sounding reply a few minutes later. A third Friend later asked for such ‘sponsorship’. The ‘applications’ to Area Meeting were to come jointly from the Local Meeting and the individual. Small groups of two or three Friends met with each potential member. These were very thoughtful and reflective sessions.
Members of the Meeting shared their perception of the individual’s contribution to the community, and the Friend moving towards membership spoke of their experience. The questions ‘Why Quakers?’ and ‘Why now?’ were considered. We learnt a lot about each other and about the Meeting. This was reflected in the minutes, which each group sent to both Local and Area Meeting:
A community in which differences are recognised and valued, a community which creates the worship… The whole of the time with the Meeting on a Sunday morning is full of ministry from the moment she walks through the door.
She is pleased to be part of a community where people like to talk about religion and have a variety of approaches.
Each time she was ready to move on the right opportunity presented, without any sense of coercion, for both her spiritual and practical needs. This has given spiritual growth.
Membership is of an Area Meeting and membership decisions rest with that Meeting. Friends from other Local Meetings were given an opportunity to meet those moving towards membership through an invitation to join us for Meeting for Worship and a picnic. Visitors came, two of whom had not previously visited another Meeting in the area. Conversation over lunch was lively but not trivial, exploring informally and with joy aspects of our faith and life together. The membership process had developed our wider fellowship.
The minutes were presented to Area Meeting and the applications accepted. This had been a process drawing on the opportunity for flexibility, a two-sided process with both the Meeting and the individuals very actively involved, which provided support and nurture for all.
Coming into membership is a two-sided process involving the individual on their spiritual journey and a community of faith.
- Qf&p 11.05
Potential members should be supported and nurtured before, during and after the process.
- Qf&p 11.06
