Category Archives: Notable Minutes

Minutes approved by the Meeting of general interest.

Marriage Equality

Minute on Same Gender Marriages (10/2009)

From the minutes of the meeting for worship with a concern for business, 10/4/2009:

Gender and Sexual Diversity Consideration

The Ad Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns of Baltimore Yearly Meeting asked monthly meetings to consider the following query and to send responses to Stuart Greene at [email protected].

    “Historically Friends held a called meeting for worship to celebrate the religious commitment and spiritual union of two of their members.  There was no legal or civil component to these earliest marriages, because the state did not sanction marriage between two Friends in a Quaker meeting house.  Today many of our Friends are in a similar position.  No legal jurisdiction within the boundaries of our yearly meeting will sanction marriage between two Friends of the same gender.

Is it time to encourage a return to this earlier practice of separation of church and state?  In accordance with our testimony to equality, should we offer the same marriage under the care of meeting – no more and no less – to all couples, while encouraging couples who are legally able, to have a separate civil ceremony?”

Friends reviewed the proposed minute of the Ad Hoc Committee.   After discussion, we decided to reaffirm the minute we approved in April, 2000.  Below is the text of this minute.

Minute on Same Gender Marriage (April 30, 2000)

    Ministry and Oversight presented its proposed minute on Same Sex Marriages. Discussion followed, including a distinction made between spiritual and civil marriages, with the note being made that a same-gender couple does not have the opportunity to have a civil union. Changes were made to it pursuant to the discussion, the final version reading as follows:
“Friends at Patapsco Preparative Meeting have given the issue of marriage and committed unions prayerful consideration. A guiding principle of our meeting is to nurture spiritually grounded and committed relationships of all kinds, whether between individuals and the meeting community, within families, or between two people in a committed relationship. Consistent with that broader principle, the meeting will consider, without regard to gender, requests from couples to take marriages under its loving care and to witness to such marriages in worship. Also consistent with that broader principle, the meeting will consider, without regard to gender, requests from couples to take committed unions under its loving care and to witness to such committed unions in worship. In addition, we wish to minute our support for adopting non-gender specific language throughout Faith and Practice.”

In addition to reaffirming the above minute, we approved the following minute:

    “Patapsco Friends Meeting will not participate in obtaining legal recognition of marriages taken under its care until such legal recognition is available to all without respect to the sexes of the couple.”

 

Finances, Process and Policies

Budget Process for Financial Support of Attendance at Quaker and Other Spiritually Nurturing Events (9/2006)

From the minutes of the meeting for worship with a concern for business, 9/3/2006:

Budget Process for Financial Support of Attendance at Quaker
and Other Spiritually Nurturing Events

In the spirit of spiritual hospitality, our meeting provides funds to help pay for attendance by active participants of our meeting at a variety of events that would nurture their spiritual growth and enrich the life of the meeting.

Nurturing the life of the meeting is the responsibility of all participants in the meeting and particularly members of committees. Promoting attendance at spiritually enriching events is one way to do that. We ask Friends to be alert to events that could be especially enriching and to identify people who could be enriched by them. The more we anticipate these opportunities the more we can be sure to budget sufficient funds and encourage participation.

Our annual budget process is one opportunity to think about and plan for how many Friends we would like to sponsor for which events.  Anticipating such opportunities through our budget process would help us to sustain our awareness of these opportunities and our desire to encourage attendance. Using the budget process in this way is not intended to set absolute limits on funds the meeting will provide; the meeting can modify the budget at any time during the year.

Examples of such events include:

a. BYM summer camps;
b. BYM Annual Sessions (including youth programs);
c. Other BYM-sponsored events, such as the Women’s Retreat and conferences for Young Friends (high school), Junior Young Friends (junior high school), or Young Adult Friends (roughly 18-35);
d. The Annual Gathering of Friends General Conference (FGC);
e. The mid-winter gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC);
f. Pendle Hill and other Quaker retreats and workshops;
g. Board Meetings of Quaker Organizations.

Budget Process for Scholarships

1. Each committee will identify events at which it would like to encourage attendance and how many people it would like to support for each. Committees are encouraged to consider which individuals to sponsor for each event, though no commitment is expected at this time.
2. Each committee will itemize in its budget request an estimate of the amount required for those events and include a list of those events.
3. The treasurer will pull together these estimates in determining the proposed budget item for scholarships. The treasurer will also provide a list of the events proposed by the committees.

Meetings for Listening

Threshing Session on Youth Safety, 3/2006

Child Safety Threshing Session/Ad Hoc Committee Formed

The threshing session was held in good order on March 26, 2006. Notes from the session will be sent out to the Meeting email list for review. Friends attending the session generally supported the idea of having a child safety policy. An ad hoc committee was appointed to write a draft of the Meeting’s policy on child safety taking into account the thoughts shared at the threshing session, as well as all other information that has been gathered by the meeting on this topic. Other Friends are invited to participate on the committee. This will be announced in the Silent Announcements.  (from 4/2/2006 minutes)

Threshing Session on Child Safety, 3/26/2006

Child safety is a topic that has been difficult for us to talk about as a meeting. Continue reading Threshing Session on Youth Safety, 3/2006 →

Concerns, Notable Minutes, Process and Policies

Minute to Establish South Mountain Friends Fellowship at the Maryland Correctional Institute-Hagerstown under the care of Patapsco Friends Meeting

On Second Day, First Month, 2005, Patapsco Friends Meeting approved a Minute of Recognition of a Patapsco Friends Meeting Prison Ministry to support and hold in the Light inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institute-Hagerstown (MCI-H) as they followed their leading to start a Friends worship group. Since that time the meeting at Hagerstown has grown from three to seven attenders supported by nine prison ministers from Patapsco Friends Meeting. As the group has grown in number they have grown in awareness of their meeting as a safe and caring community, a cherished community they have built in the midst of difficult and dangerous circumstances.

For those of us who have had the opportunity to support them, it has been a time of testing. Friends have no creed, no catechism. What do we teach and how do we teach it? Again and again we have been brought back to the foundations of our faith: that Jesus taught us to love God, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to love our enemies. We teach by our faithful attendance, by our care and concern for the attenders of this meeting and for their community, and by modeling Friends exploration of their spiritual experience through queries, in worship sharing and in silent worship. They think our presence is a miracle. It opens us to the power of the advice of George Fox: “Friends, meet together and know one another in that which is eternal, which was before the world was.” We’re not sure any of us know exactly what that means, but we all know what it feels like.

Ten years ago, a small number of us determined to found a meeting in Howard County. We had the same concerns that the early attenders at MCI-H had. Would it work? Who would come? How could we make ourselves known to the community? Each week at Mt. Hebron House a miracle happens. Each week at Hagerstown a miracle happens. It is the gift we give to each other and offer to the world.

Now the men at Hagerstown desire their community to be known as the South Mountain Friends Fellowship. In recognition of their continuing commitment to meet together in the manner of Friends, we hereby minute our approval of the establishment of this Fellowship under the care of our meeting. We will forward this minute to Baltimore Yearly Meeting; and place this Fellowship on the list of Friends Meetings in Friends Journal.

Approved, Fifth Day, Third Month, 2006

Ramona Buck,

Clerk, Patapsco Friends Meeting