Procedures of Durham
Monthly Meeting
Early Quakers used Clearness Committees almost
exclusively to meet with individuals proposing to be married under the care of
the Meeting. The name itself comes from
the committees' charge: to insure that both partners were clear of previous marriage commitments. In Durham Monthly Meeting Clearness Committees are used to serve
that original purpose and also two others.
A second is to meet with applicants for membership to
assist them in gaining a deeper understanding of Durham Monthly Meeting and of
the Religious Society of Friends, and to assist the Ministry and Counsel
Committee in arriving at a recommendation to the Monthly Meeting about the
proposed membership.
The third is to assist members and attenders and
their families who face difficult decisions or who have special
difficulties. Sometimes a Clearness
Committee is needed when there are conflicts in a family, with a separation or
a divorce imminent. Sometimes an
individual seeks help on a problem of a personal nature. Occasionally someone seeks help in finding a
sense of vocational direction or life purpose or in learning to cope with an
unexpected change in circumstances.
A member or attender of Durham Meeting can submit a
request for a Clearness Committee to the Clerk or to any member of the Ministry
and Counsel Committee, and may even suggest the names of persons he or she
would like to have named to such a group.
In some instances the Committee on Ministry and Counsel may decide
without such a request to appoint a Clearness Committee, often including some
of its own members. The deliberations,
purpose, and even existence of a Clearness Committee are treated as
confidential.
Resource on Clearness Committees:
Patricia
Loring. Spiritual Discernment: the context and goal of clearness committees, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #305. Wallingford, Pa: Pendle Hill, 1992, 32 pp.