QuakerInfo.com Forum

[Karen]

I have a few questions about Clearness Committees. First, what exactly is a Clearness Committee?

I understand that a Monthly Meeting will hold a Clearness Committee for an attender who is considering becoming a member. Does that happen every time someone asked to become a member? It seems to me that the attender is asking permission from the Clearness Committee to become a member. Is that the case?

Does the Committee meet just once or many times?

Can someone request a Clearness Committee for some other reason besides membership?

How does one go about asking for a Clearness Commitee?

Who appoints the members to the committee -- the Monthly Meeting or the person who requested the Clearness Committee?

Thanks.

Karen

[michaeldavidjay]

A clearness committee is an informal discussion group to help someone make a decision. The group meets, prays together, the person making the decision explains the details of the decision, and the group asks questions. Basically, the purpose is to help the person gain clarity.

The committee might meet more than once -- but I've not observed that personally. Also, I've never been in a meeting that assembled a clearness committee about membership -- generally people are clear before they ask, and the meetings I've attended are rather informal about membership.

Who do you ask? that's a good question -- this is a pastoral care issue, so Overseers, or whichever committee is responsible.

Most likely, the clearness committee would be appointed by the monthly meeting, but, there is no reason why you can't form an informal group to do the same thing.
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Do Friends speak to today's condition, or are we only a historical footnote?

[Kiahanie]

In my corner of Quakerdom (North Pacific Yearly Meeting), a Visiting Committee always meets with a prospective member, usually more than once. This is often referred to as a "Clearness Committee," and meets at least twice. "These visits serve to determine the readiness of the applicant and the Meeting for this membership by providing an opportunity (1) for the visiting Friends to become acquainted with the applicant on a deeper level, (2) for the applicant to ask questions, and (3) for the visiting Friends to provide any help needed to prepare the applicant and the Meeting for this new membership." (NPYM Faith and Practice)

Clearness Committees are also used to help season leadings and concerns of Friends before being brought to a Meeting for Business. In less formal ways, a Clearness Committee can help an individual or family find the way of the Spirit in difficult or confusing circumstances. I believe they are always a function of the Oversight Committees, rather than convened by an individual.

A good resource on Clearness Committees is Living with Oneself and Others from the New England Yearly Meeting.
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"There is a field out beyond right and wrong. I'll meet you there." --Jellaludin Rumi

[james]

Kiahanie's description applies to my meeting as well. In addition we always have clearness committees for a marriage under the care of the meeting.

These two types of clearness committees, but often not other types of clearness committees, bring a recommendation to the monthly meeting's meeting for business, which makes the final decision (to bring the person into membership or the marriage under the care of the meeting). It is very rare but not unheard of for meeting for business to not accept the clearness committee's recommendation.

Our clearness committees are formed by our monthly meeting's ministry and counsel committee, equivalent to what some other meetings call "oversight".
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James Riemermann
www.nontheistfriends.org
www.liberalquakers.org

[jesse]

Hi Karen - here are a few thoughts on your questions. I'm coming at this as a Canadian Friend from an unprogrammed meeting (similar to other FGC meetings in the US):

[I understand that a Monthly Meeting will hold a Clearness Committee for an attender who is considering becoming a member. Does that happen every time someone asked to become a member? It seems to me that the attender is asking permission from the Clearness Committee to become a member. Is that the case? ]

In our meeting, it is typical for anyone seeking membership to be given a clearness committee. I would NOT say that the attender is seeking permission from the clearness committee. Rather the clearness committee meets with the prospective member to worship with that person and to help that person to seek guidance about whether membership is the right course of action, or rightly timed. The committee doesn't sit in judgement; The committee is there to support the prospective member in making a worshipful choice (in hearing the inner light). The committee will certainly bring back a recommendation from the meeting, but the subtle but critical point is that everyone on the committee (including the person asking for membership) is seeking the will of god together. The clearness committee is also a chance for the prospective member to ask clarifying questions and generally get a better sense of membership, if there are additional concerns they haven't sorted out yet.

[Does the Committee meet just once or many times? ]

I think that might depend both on the meeting and the individual. For me, the committee met just once, but I grew up amongst Friends, so it might have been done differently for someone who was newer to Friends??

[Can someone request a Clearness Committee for some other reason besides membership? ]

Absolutely. Clearness committees can be struck anytime someone needs extra support and guidance in a worshipful context. Marriage and career changes are two times that particularly jump to mind. Basically, any time someone is facing a big decision and needs that extra support, they can ask for a clearness committee.

[How does one go about asking for a Clearness Commitee? ]

If your meeting has a Ministry and Council (M&C) committee, they would generally be the people responsible for forming the committee.

[Who appoints the members to the committee -- the Monthly Meeting or the person who requested the Clearness Committee?]

M&C generally has the task of discerning an appropriate clearness committee, but if there were someone who you particularly wanted (or particularly didn't want) to have on the committee, you could say so when requesting the clearness committee and I suspect that would be taken into account.

[michaeldavidjay]

Edited out.
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Do Friends speak to today's condition, or are we only a historical footnote?

[Anthony]

[Kiahanie]

I do not think your (passive?) participation in the abuse permanently dims your moral authority. Paul had a history of persecuting Christians, but once he Saw The Light he was able to speak with authority and share that Light with others.

I don't know what the procedures are in your neck of the woods, but out here we really don't have grievance procedures, we have concerns. Most Meetings have an Oversight Committee, which would probably be the place to share your concern, in whatever procedural form it may take.
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"There is a field out beyond right and wrong. I'll meet you there." --Jellaludin Rumi

[michaeldavidjay]

I'm working on figuring out the procedures -- I recently moved. (about 6 months ago). Its a blended community.

weird thing... it was like the person investigated was there to absorb the accusations, and -- the accusation seemed to be "You are selfish, because you hurt... and your pain hurts us -- stop being selfish by hurting".

I think, I found myself of a disownment committee meeting, without being told what it was. It was just a surprise "we are going to talk about this" meeting.
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Do Friends speak to today's condition, or are we only a historical footnote?

[michaeldavidjay]

My EFI background dims my moral authority. (I said I saw no reason for these proceedings, in retrospect I should not have left, or pressed my discomfort) I have no voice is proceedings. You see, if I suggest something is inappropriate, I do not understand the "way we do things".

[I saw it as a pastoral care issue -- pastoral care becomes difficult when you don't trust a person or a body to provide it. I guess we need an overseers committee]. <<edit addition>>

If treating people as human beings, whether or not they are hurting inside, is against the procedure -- I am against it.

@Anthony. I just was blowing off steam because I was part of a clearness committee gone very abusively wrong (on Monday). Some Friends think that Quakers are better than everyone else... and that attitude can invite abuse. If you believe you ARE open minded and accepting, you sometimes are unable to critically evaluate yourself and admit that... you have a long way to go.

I went through most of the procedure. the damage is done, all I can do is attempt to live in compassion, and take responsibility that:

[BillSamuel]

As you might guess by now, the details will vary from meeting to meeting.

There are two standard clearness committees which have to do with matters which will require Monthly Meeting approval - membership and marriage. As has been indicated, most other clearness committees will not be of matters that need Monthly Meeting action (although occasionally there are instances).

Part of the difference would be in size of meetings. In a small meeting, the Monthly Meeting may directly appoint on first instance or the appropriate standing committee might be itself always the clearness committee. In a large meeting, a standing committee is likely to select the clearness committee members (may sometimes include both those on the standing committee and those not), although that selection might (particularly for marriage committees) still then require Monthly Meeting approval. A clearness committee might report back through the appropriate standing committee in a large meeting, but in a small one it's more likely to report directly to the monthly meeting.

Some meetings have guidelines about what to go over with the applicant for membership or for marriage under the care of meeting. In Baltimore Yearly Meeting, such guidelines are appendices to the YM Faith and Practice, which might be the case in some other YMs but not for many.

I have heard of members in some meetings complain that when they applied the "clearness committee" just wanted to have a social occasion with the applicant, and didn't ask serious questions about the applicant's understandings of Quakerism and reasons for wanting to be a member. Other meetings tend to have a more serious process where they will really explore the kinds of matters that are in guidelines for the process. I've known of cases where applicants in trying to answer the questions realized that they did not have an adequate understanding of Quakerism and asked for a waiting period so they could get more familiar and really wrestle with whether membership was right for them.

The goal is for the applicant and the members of the committee to all be clear on the same course at the end, but this does not always happen (although it usually does). I've known of cases where the applicant felt they were ready to go forward, but not all members of the clearness committee were in unity on this. I've even known of cases where the clearness committee made a recommendation of approval, but either the standing committee or the monthly meeting could not reach unity on the matter, although these cases are rare.
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Bill Samuel, Silver Spring, MD, USA
Co-Coordinator, Friends in Christ

[kevin roberts]

my conservative meeting does clearness on marriage and membership, as well as providing cleaness committees more or less on request

interestingly, one of my ministers once complained about the proliferation of clearness committees on these other issues, the ones where a member has a leading, for instance, and wants guidance from the meeting

currently we usually put together a clearness committee for it, but he was a bit thoughtful about how such committees were a departure from the way it had formerly been.

the previous and hoary tradition had been to bring all such concerns to the assembled meeting as a whole, so that all parts of the body had an opportunity to listen and possibly provide guided assistance

[michaeldavidjay]

Kevin -- I don't know if you are joking -- but, it seems ironic to form a clearness committee to discuss whether or not the meeting is forming too many clearness committees.

I'm really tempted to quote you on this -- if I can ever find an excuse to do so. Its really funny.
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Do Friends speak to today's condition, or are we only a historical footnote?

[kevin roberts]

nah, we didn't do a clearness committee on that topic

but seriously, his point was that the smallest divisible unit of the meeting for meeting business was the meeting itself. we generally still do it that way, for most business.

i tend to agree with him, for the most part. having smaller committees meet with individuals for specific smaller topics tends to isolate the discussion from the meeting as a whole. in his day, an individual laid a concern before the entire meeting, and the entire meeting responded.

for sensitive issues, sure, a smaller group might be more diplomatic, but i think that we have lost some of the body-of-christ connectedness that used to be a conscious goal of the meeting's relationship with individuals

[james]

Hey, Bill, it's good to hear from you!
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James Riemermann
www.nontheistfriends.org
www.liberalquakers.org