What we have in common is not our ideas, but our selves.
Gusten Lutter, Mountain View Monthly Meeting, 2003
Introduction
The Religious Society of Friends is a community of faith
based on individual and mutually shared direct and unmediated experience of the
Divine. Friends worship and grow in the Spirit together, open and obedient to
the Power within, by which we believe all may be guided. Friends welcome all
visitors, inviting them to return frequently and become regular attenders. The
Society desires to include in its membership all persons who find themselves in
unity with its faith and practices or are committed to aspiring toward that
unity. The meeting consists of its members and faithful attenders. We share
ourselves without distinction; membership acknowledges a deeper commitment to
the affairs of the monthly meeting.
Persons finding themselves in or seeking unity may apply
for membership in a monthly meeting of the Intermountain Yearly Meeting of
the Religious Society of Friends. Membership signals a readiness to join
in the common effort of the Society to seek and follow the Inner Light. This
readiness involves some experience and understanding of that Light as it is
known by Friends: a reality that guides and directs, gives strength to act upon
that guidance, and brings unity with the Spirit of God. Membership in a monthly
meeting also involves sustained commitment.
As members have responsibility toward the meeting, so has
the meeting responsibility toward its members. Members are the immediate family
of the Society, and although all those associated with the meeting fall under
its loving care, it is for the membership that the meeting carries primary
responsibility. Historically, this responsibility included provision not only
of spiritual support but also of material assistance to members experiencing economic
hardship. This custom continues in many meetings. A meeting’s broad
responsibilities to its members include, but are not limited to: mutual
support, charity, guidance, empowerment, and forgiveness.
Ever since early Friends rejected the distinction between
priesthood and laity, responsibility for the full range of meeting activities
has rested with the membership. Meetings are enriched by members who take an
active role in corporate worship, share in the work and service of the Society,
and live in harmony with its basic beliefs and practices. Friends make a
spiritual vocation a responsibility of all members. Membership involves
a willingness to attend meetings regularly, both those for worship and those
for business; to give service through committees and otherwise as the way
opens; and to share in financial responsibilities. Responsibility for the
meeting and its decisions resides with and is ultimately retained by the
members of the meeting.
Throughout the history of the Religious Society of
Friends, the community has been led by the Light shining through individual
Friends, just as the Light of the community has called individual Friends back
from what George Fox called “wandering in notions.” Friends’ suspicion of
concretely formulated creeds, confessions, and doctrines comes out of respect
for this dynamically unfolding experience and charges the individual and the
community to challenge and test each other. This mutual discernment does not
always work to perfection—sometimes we reach premature judgment; sometimes we
fall into inertia. Nevertheless, by undertaking membership we agree to open
ourselves—and our understanding of the Light—to the testing of the community.
Likewise, when we accept individuals into the community we publicly acknowledge
that their leading and measure of Light may open us to new understanding and
action. As one applicant for membership said,
I feel very strongly that the spiritual life absolutely
requires that we should not remain isolated. It is this deep need of getting
out of a prolonged and dangerous relative isolation which urges me to be
admitted among the Quakers. It is more and more clear to me that it is only in
the bosom of a religious family, freely but strongly constituted, that the
individual can render to the world the services it sorely needs. . . .
Pierre Ceresole in a letter of application for
membership to London Yearly Meeting, 1936.
as quoted in Britain Yearly Meeting Quaker Faith &
Practice: The Book of Christian Discipline
of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in
Britain, 1994, section 10.29.
Attenders and Membership
When I walked into the silence of my first meeting for
worship, I knew I was home.
Sentiment expressed by many Friends
People are attracted to the Religious Society of Friends for
many reasons. Some discover a community that supports their quest for a
personal experience of the Divine, and others find a context within which to
live out a life of discipleship. Many have had disappointing or unfulfilling
experiences in other faith communities and find among Friends the freedom and
support to explore their own leadings. Still others see Friends as a socially
engaged and politically active community.
Meeting members are encouraged to get acquainted with
attenders and to be available to them for mutual spiritual support and
guidance. The meeting invites regular attenders to participate in its life.
Attenders are encouraged to take part in the various activities of the meeting,
to attend meeting for business, and at the discretion of the monthly meeting,
to serve on committees. Attendance at regional (quarterly or half-yearly)
meetings, Intermountain Yearly Meeting, and other gatherings of Friends can
provide attenders with a deeper understanding of Friends than participation in
just a monthly meeting typically allows. Familiarity with Friends’ way of
worship, manner of conducting business, organizational structure, finances, and
major spiritual and historical writings, as well as Friends’ periodicals and
organizations,*
enriches the quality of attenders’ participation in and experience of the
meeting.
The Religious Society of Friends values the presence and
participation of all persons drawn to Friends. Attenders nourished through
their involvement with the meeting, familiar with and enriched by Friends’
basic beliefs and practices, and desiring to undertake some responsibilities
within the meeting are encouraged to apply for membership. The meeting
committee charged with membership should be aware of and responsive to
attenders who appear to be approaching readiness for membership. Similarly,
attenders who feel ready to consider membership may broach the topic with any
member of the meeting or with someone on the committee overseeing membership.
You’ve been acting like a member for a long time. Don’t
you think it’s time to make it official?
Barney Aldrich, Mountain View Friends Meeting
Preparing and Applying for Membership
Remember that moral and spiritual achievement is not
what is required in an applicant: sincerity of purpose is. Complete agreement
with all our testimonies is not necessary. It is important for the life of the
Society that the applicant is broadly in unity with the views and practices of
Friends. Many applicants have too lofty an idea of the Society, and of the
quality of the lives of its members. They should be warned of possible
disappointment.
Britain Yearly Meeting, Quaker Faith & Practice:
The Book of Christian Discipline of the Yearly
Meeting
of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in
Britain,
1994, section 11.17.
Membership in the Religious Society of Friends is held
within a monthly meeting. The membersof the monthly meeting welcome inquiries
about membership and other matters concerning the Society. Friends encourage
informal conversations as one step toward applying for membership. It is
important that the meeting help newcomers understand the membership process and
how it differs from that of other denominations.
As a person becomes acquainted with a particular monthly
meeting and with Friends’ ways by participating in the life of the meeting, he
or she may feel led to consider membership. Preparation for membership involves
regular participation in the life of a meeting over a period of time (often
more than a year), including meetings for worship, meetings for business,
committee service, and other activities. Additionally, attenders interested in
membership benefit from a familiarity with written materials about the history
and principles of the Religious Society of Friends; particular attention is
invited to readings about Friends’ testimonies and to the Intermountain Yearly
Meeting’s book of discipline, Faith and Practice. These preparations are
assumed to accompany a prospective member’s sense of being a part of the
community as well as a strong spiritual persuasion.
A sense of readiness to apply for membership can come to
an attender in a variety of ways. One may discover that the faith and practice
of Friends has become central to her or his life. Another may feel a spiritual
leading that becomes increasingly clear and strong. A third may report a sense