Category Archives: Ministry & Care

The Ministry and Care Committee (M&C) helps build and maintain a spiritual community in which Love and Unity flourish and all are inspired to walk in the Light. This committee combines two distinct roles that are filled in some Meetings by two separate committees; these two roles are facilitating the care for 1) the community as a whole and 2) for individuals in the Meeting. Especially in a small Meeting, many concerns that are not taken up by specific committees become the concern of M&C by default.

Ministry & Care, Patapsco, Spiritual State

Spiritual State of the Meeting Report – 2014

BYM queries for 2014:

  • What supports the life of the Spirit in your Meeting community? What challenges and troubles are you facing? In what ways is the Meeting less than you would wish it to be?
  • How does your Meeting nurture the spiritual life of members and attenders? How does your Meeting help Friends live into right relationship, “a state of harmony and balance with ourselves and our families, our communities, our government, and the world that sustains us all.”
  • Is your Meeting as diverse as you would like it to be? How do you prepare newcomers for full participation in the life of the Meeting? What do you do to actively encourage and support the ministry and community participation of Friends of all ages—from Young Adult Friends, to families and young children, to elder Friends?
  • How do you reach beyond the boundaries of your Meeting to strengthen Meeting practices and share the wisdom your Meeting has to offer? Do you have relationships with other Monthly Meetings? A Quarterly Meeting? Do you reach out to BYM or other Monthly Meetings when facing a challenging situation?

Patapsco Meeting of the Society of Friends

Spiritual State of the Meeting, 2014:
Draft for Review Prior to Presentation at Meeting for Business

Supporting the Life of the Spirit Continue reading Spiritual State of the Meeting Report – 2014 →

Ministry & Care, Patapsco, Spiritual State

Spiritual State of the Meeting Report – 2013

“What is Quaker faith?  It is not a tidy package of words which you can capture at any given time and then repeat weekly at a worship service.  It is an experience of discovery which starts the discoverer on a journey which is life-long.”

—Elise Boulding

During the past year, we have felt guided and supported in discovery, sharing our individual journeys and discerning our path as a community. Friends sense that we are being spiritually drawn together to build an inclusive, welcoming, and safe faith community.  One Friend described what has taken place in PFM this past year as a “coming together”—an intangible synergy among our many expressions of community life.

What supports the life of the Spirit in our meeting community?  How is the presence of Spirit apparent?

Our spiritual community was nurtured in many ways throughout the year. Our sense of fellowship deepened through an overnight Spring Retreat in the woods at a Quaker camp. Several Friends offered workshops, but the highlight was Continue reading Spiritual State of the Meeting Report – 2013 →

Ministry & Care, Patapsco, Spiritual State

Spiritual State of the Meeting Report – 2012

Approved 6/2/2013

How does the Spirit prosper among us?
The Spirit has been with us as a wise counselor, a loving presence, a prompter of caring actions, and as a weaver and mender of our Quaker community. Spiritual leanings and messages that seemed to transcend all others during the year came from the queries on Caring for One Another, namely:

• In what ways do I show respect for that of God in every person?
• Do I reach out to those in distress? If I find this difficult, what holds me back?
• Am I comfortable making my own needs known to my Meeting? Continue reading Spiritual State of the Meeting Report – 2012 →

Finances, Ministry & Care, Personal Assistance Fund, Process and Policies

Minute on Personal Assistance Fund (3/2010)

From the minutes of the meeting for worship with a concern for business, 3/7/2010, this minute supersedes the minute on a Personal Assistance Fund from 9/2000:

Minute on a Personal Assistance Fund
for Patapsco Friends Meeting

Purpose:

If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; not withstanding ye give them not those things which are useful to the body; what doeth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

James 2:15-17

A Personal Assistance Fund is established as part of the General Budget.

The Personal Assistance Committee is appointed to oversee disbursements from this fund to members and regular attenders as requested.

The committee that oversees this fund shall be available in a timely way to those asking for assistance who have bodily needs: food, clothing, shelter or medical needs which if not met quickly are likely to become urgent. Requests for aid should be made to the clerk of the committee.

Responsibilities of Personal Assistance Committee members and of those requesting aid:

Any two members of the Personal Assistance Committee have the authority to disperse up to 50% of the amount remaining in the Personal Assistance Fund at the time of the request. If more funds are needed, the requestor must meet with the Personal Assistance Committee.

Members of the committee should seek to discern the nature of the help being requested, the level of help being requested, the likely duration of the problem and the ability of the committee to give the requested aid, and the rightness of the request.

The committee should help the person requesting aid to develop a plan to address his/her needs.

Committee members should be prepared to follow up with the person requesting aid and to provide spiritual support.

The business of the committee shall be conducted in strict confidence. If, however, the committee and person requesting aid are clear the problem is not a bodily need, or goes beyond bodily need or that the need exceeds the resources of the Personal Assistance Fund, then, with the agreement of the person requesting aid, the committee may refer the problem to another committee or to the Meeting as a whole.

Repayment of disbursements from the fund:

Disbursements made from the fund shall be considered non-interest bearing loans. After a disbursement has been made, it shall be the responsibility of the committee and the person requesting aid to establish a plan for repayment, as appropriate. If it is appropriate to have a repayment plan, the plan should be one that the person requesting aid can in good faith agree to. Aid should not be dependent on the likelihood of repayment.

Committee Members:

The committee shall have 3 members, all of whom are regular attenders at Patapsco Friends Meeting. One member shall be appointed from and by the Ministry & Care Committee, one shall be the Treasurer of the Meeting and one shall be appointed by the Meeting through its nominating process. The term shall be for 2 years.

After approval by the Meeting of the members of the committee, it will meet to select a clerk, review its purpose and determine any other necessary business. All other meetings will be called.

The Committee shall report the amount of aid given and the number of people who have received aid to the Business Meeting at least once a year.

Approved on March 7, 2010