The dead weight

A Friend voices concern over the ordering of Meeting business

It would be difficult to better Craig Barnett’s succinct analysis of membership (9 September). Craig quotes the three fundamental elements of being a Quaker from Quaker faith & practice 11.01, the third of which is the ‘ordering of the Meeting’s business’.

In twenty years as an attender, my experience is that it is this third element that drastically inhibits membership applications. Over the years my tiny Local Meeting has seen a steady stream of attenders appear and disappear, leading to only very rare applications for membership. The few long-term attenders, such as myself, who ‘stick around’ are in no doubt that the underlying reason is nearly always related to the ‘Quaker Business Method’. Following a recent Area Meeting, one such attender told Local Meeting: ‘If only we could become independent and concentrate on the spiritual lives of our Meeting and our community, without this dead weight of bureaucracy around our necks. It is all so depressing.’

For purposes of illustration, finance provides a useful focal point. I have recently surveyed the accounts of eight Area Meetings as filed with the Charity Commission. They are, again, depressing; instead of demonstrating our testimonies of truth and simplicity, in recent years they have been reduced to a meaningless consolidation of bureaucratic nonsense. A financial priesthood that brooks no argument enforces these shortcomings. An attender who expressed an interest was emailed by an Area Meeting treasurer with the words: ‘Haven’t you got anything better to do.’

At a recent Area Meeting an attender who attempted to query a ‘transfer’ of almost £50,000 was ‘eldered’ within seconds of rising to speak. This, in my opinion – done in front of other Friends – was close to ‘bullying in public’. This huge sum could be the result of money laundering for all anyone cared.

The reappointment of the examiner after years of problems was surely a matter for reflective discernment by Meeting after presentation of the facts. However, on this occasion, it was rushed through, following an inept performance by the treasurer under the instruction of the trustees.

I don’t believe any of this is unique to my Meeting. I was speaking recently to a long-term Friend from elsewhere, who said: ‘Goodness, I’m sure none of our trustees have ever acknowledged the Quaker Business Method.’

After twenty years of attending Meeting for Worship in my Local Meeting, I continue to support my wife in her membership, but becoming a member myself is not something I can ever consider.

---

Comments

Please login to add a comment