It’s been two years since my meeting granted me a minute of religious service, and since my anchor committee is meeting tomorrow night, it seems like a good time to reflect on what having a minute has meant. First, for the non-Quakers—or for those Friends whose meetings don’t engage in this practice—let me explain a few terms in that first sentence.
A Quaker congregation (in my branch of Quakerism) is called a monthly meeting (Robin M explains the many ways we use the word meeting) because, although we gather to worship every week, we meet once a month to conduct business in a spirit of worship. (Some Quakers use the term “church,” but I won’t try to explain all the variety within Quakerism here.) A minute of religious service is a way for a monthly meeting to recognize and support the ongoing calling of a member. Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting wrote this helpful explanation of this practice. An anchor committee (also sometimes called a support committee) is appointed by the meeting to oversee and support the ministry on behalf of the meeting. Here’s a copy of my actual minute from two years ago:
Chestnut Hill Meeting recognizes that our member Eileen Flanagan carries an ongoing concern for helping people to trust God and to listen to God’s guidance. For a number of years Eileen has faithfully served Friends in and beyond our meeting as well as persons of other faith backgrounds by facilitating retreats and workshops and by communicating with a wider audience in print and on-line.
Now as way opens for Eileen to engage in these activities more frequently, publicly, and intentionally, we unite in support of her leading to help Friends experience discernment directly in their lives and their meetings and develop the faith to follow the guidance they receive; and to introduce this elemental aspect of Quaker faith and practice to the world beyond the Society of Friends. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Society of Friends and to share Quaker experience with those outside the Society of Friends by supporting Eileen’s work. Having received the blessing of her ministry among us, we will support her call to a wider ministry with prayer and the grounding and testing of ongoing oversight. We commend Eileen to all, in the hope that she will be kindly received wherever she serves.
The wording of the minute, though slightly cumbersome, still feels right. I feel my leading has included both writing and speaking and has been with both Quakers and non-Quakers. If there’s been any change in focus since the minute was written it would be more speaking and less facilitating, though that might be a temporary change because of the book’s release. I’ve also been speaking a lot lately about letting go of fear, rather than discernment specifically, but I feel they are closely connected. Both fall under the umbrella of trusting God. When I go to Durham in less than two weeks, I’ll be giving one talk on the book, one of living with stress at a Duke conference, and one on discerning leadings for Durham Friends Meeting. It somehow seems to all go together.
The most difficult part, in terms of having a minute, has been in trying to figure out the appropriate role for my anchor committee, which is made up of busy working mothers. I am not the only person with a minute in my meeting who has wondered how to have committee meetings that go deep, without burdening people’s time, knowing that committees that meet more often and for longer periods often reach a deeper level of sharing. The hope of this system is that our work is on behalf of the wider community and somehow enriches it, but it’s hard to know how to foster this. For some Quakers, whose work brings them away from their meetings many weekends, the committee can serve as a bridge to help the community know what the individual is up to. Although I’ve been away more than in past years, I am still at worship most Sundays and in the newsletter many months, so I don’t feel that need. In fact, I have felt very supported by my meeting as a whole in the months since the book came out, so it’s hard to know exactly what my anchor committee should be doing. One role is to help in discernment about which opportunities to say yes to, but for that, we would really need to meet more often than quarterly. The other need I feel is for people to challenge me in ways that will help me grow in this work. As I mentioned a few posts ago, two Friends played this role after my Pendle Hill talk, and it felt helpful. Again, this requires asking other people for their time, which is hard for me when my own feels so tight.
One possibility that seems to be germinating is to move to a system of a mutual support committee, where a few people with minutes serve as support for each other, joined by a few others from the meeting. The hope is that such a committee would meet more regularly than our individual committees have been able to and that, because we are doing similar work, we will be especially able to foster each other’s growth and faithfulness. We’re just beginning to test this possibility, however. If anyone in another meeting has thoughts about structures of support, I’d be glad to hear them.
Eileen
I like your idea of a mutual support committee. Are you thinking all from one local meeting?
When you travel or speak, is it alone? Or have you a personal elder, supporter or anchor there to check in and consult with? Several released Friends in our region (North Pacific and Northwest YMs) are careful to work in pairs.
Thanks, Jay. A mutual support committee would not have to be people from one meeting, though we are thinking that if all or most were from our home meeting, it would meet the meeting’s obligation to provide oversight and hopefully enliven the spiritual life of the meeting.
As for traveling with an elder, I have asked Friends to serve in that role on a few occasions, but don’t always. There seem to be some occasions when that feels really helpful and others when it doesn’t feel necessary. With the amount I’ve been traveling, I don’t want to burden others when it’s not necessary. I also feels more complicated as I start to earn more money from leading workshops. It is definitely an area of Quaker practice where I have a lot to learn.
Eileen, thank you for this post. I, too, think the mutual support committee is a great idea and I look forward to hearing how it works out. Do you bring your minute with you when you do speeches, as well? And how do you, your meeting and committee, and the folks you minister to, use the practice of endorsement?
Also, I’m very interested in the process that produced the minute. Maybe you talked about this in a previous post. If so, could you point me to it?
Steven