MEMBERSHIP

Becoming A Member

It is not necessary to wait to be invited to join a Friends Meeting; people decide for themselves when they are ready to commit themselves to membership.

A person who has been coming to meeting regularly, and who:

has been learning more and more about Friends through reading Faith and Practice and other Quaker literature;
who is becoming active in the life of the meeting;
attending meeting for worship for business; and
who has come to feel at home among its members,

... may feel ready to apply for membership.

This is the time to write a letter to the clerk outlining the feeling of being drawn into fellowship with Friends and of being in unity with Friends' principles and testimonies. The clerk forwards the letter to Worship and Ministry, which at its next meeting appoints a membership clearness committee to meet with the applicant. This committee reports back to Worship and Ministry, which then makes a recommendation at the next meeting for business.

The applying member should not be present at that business meeting. When the request for membership is approved, a welcoming committee is appointed.

Susan Vorwerk, 10/10/2020

Hello and welcome to our meeting. If you are a new visitor, we have a page for you to get to know us and learn more about planning a visit.
Click here to see more.

Visitors click here.

Planning your Visit

New to Meeting for Worship?

If you've never attended a Meeting for Worship, we hope you will come worship with us.

Many have found help in viewing the "introductory" videos to answer questions that might arise in expectation of a Quaker Meeting for Worship.

Most Quaker meetings, at least in this part of country, are so-called "unprogrammed" meetings. This means that our meetings for worship are not led by a minister but are largely conducted in silence. Typically, a Clerk or other Member of the Meeting will close worship with a simple "Good morning, friends" but otherwise the meeting may be completely silent.

Members and attenders are always invited to speak out of the silence with a message about their spiritual journey, although messages are not responded to directly.

ripples

A message has been described as a pebble tossed into a pond. The resulting ripples are received by others in the meeting and may contribute to their own spiritual journeys.