The Advancement and Outreach Committee helps ensure that newcomers can find our Meeting and feel welcomed. Our mission is to nurture the awareness, knowledge, and understanding of Quakerism to those inside and outside our Meeting, whether new to Quakerism or not so new. Our activities have included: obtaining signs and advertising; creating and gathering literature for the newcomer packet and literature rack; and offering study and discussion group opportunities for Friends.

The Finance Committee [formed in March, 2020] serves to manage the financial health of the Meeting, establish annual budgets, support the Treasurer, and communicate financial needs and responsibilities to the Meeting.

The House Committee (formerly the Hospitality Coordinators and Mt Hebron Liaison) helps ensure that we have adequate supplies for simple meal, keep cupboards organized, help coordinate volunteers who provide simple meal, and help coordinate refreshments for special events. The liaison also helps schedule the Meeting’s use of Hebron House and generally maintains open communication between Mt. Hebron Presbyterian Church and our Meeting.

The Library Committee develops, organizes, and makes accessible the PFM Library’s collections. The committee is responsible for identifying and purchasing new library materials of interest to the meeting. It also reviews donations and either accepts them or offers them to others. Committee members accession and shelve materials and deaccession those that are no longer needed. They update the library’s catalog on the LibraryThing website and assist library users in locating materials.

The Ministry and Care Committee 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 by default.

The Nominating Committee helps identify individuals to serve as officers of the Meeting and on the Meeting’s committees and in the various individual positions needed. Since the business meeting ultimately makes the final appointments and all such decisions must meet with a unified sense of the Meeting, the nominating committee also vets the nominations to help ensure there will be no objections.

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee identifies some specific service projects that promote greater peace and social justice in the community. The committee looks for service opportunities that can involve the whole Meeting and ways to support those who have individual leadings. The committee also explores ways to promote peaceful means of resolving conflicts.

The Personal Assistance Committee takes on a very specific role of care for individual Friends. It considers requests from individuals for financial help in times of need. The committee includes the Treasurer and two other members.

The Religious Education Committee organizes the first day school program and some other programs for the children of the Meeting. In our Meeting, RE is not responsible for adult religious education. Adult RE is organized on an ad hoc basis, sometimes by M&C or A&O. Mission – The Religious Education Committee of Patapsco Friends Meeting is charged with guiding and conducting the formal religious education of the Meeting. At this time, other Meeting committees are taking on the provision of adult education, but the RE Committee stands ready as needed to support adult RE education activities.

The Returning Citizens Support Fund Committee is established as part of the General Budget. It is appointed to oversee disbursements from the Fund for Returning Citizens Support of PFM to benefit former members of the South Mountain Fellowship, a group of prisoners who identify as Quaker and met at the Maryland Correctional Institute in Hagerstown. It is expected that these limited funds will help to address immediate needs as people transition to their communities, such as purchasing bus passes or buying urgently needed clothing. Members of Patapsco Friends Meeting who are actively engaged in supporting former South Mountain Fellowship members may ask the Committee in advance for funds or may submit receipts to the Clerk of the Committee and request reimbursement. Alternatively, members may submit receipts and ask that they be credited as in-kind donations for tax purposes.

Unity with Nature Committee – We are called to live in right relationship with all Creation, recognizing that the entire world is interconnected and is a manifestation of the Divine. We work to integrate into the beliefs and practices of the Religious Society of Friends the Truth that Creation is sacred, and to be respected, protected, and held in reverence in its own right and the Truth that human aspirations for peace and justice depend upon restoring the Earth’s ecological integrity. We promote these Truths by being patterns and examples, by communicating our message, by providing spiritual and material support to those engaged in the compelling task of transforming our relationship with the Earth.

In 2021, our Meeting formed an ad hoc Change Group for Racial Justice. The purpose is: to advance racial equity work and facilitate paths to change within ourselves, Patapsco Friends Meeting, and the wider community; to identify and lower barriers to participation for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) within Patapsco Friends Meeting; and to engage the Meeting community in activities of reflection and action that support the above-stated purpose.

First Nations Learning Circle is intended as an informal gathering to learn about and from the indigenous people of our country. We want to better understand and appreciate their wisdom, their history, their creativity, and their current experiences and challenges. We want to ask questions and research the answers. We want to look for opportunities to build relationships with Native Americans. Opportunities may arise from the group we wish to share with the meeting as a whole.

Individual Positions

The Clerk or Co-Clerks facilitate meetings for worship with a concern for business, which are held monthly. All are warmly encouraged to participate in meetings for business, which have the ultimate responsibility for ordering the life and work of the Meeting. Ideally, the meeting for business is a shared spiritual effort to discern God’s will and divine guidance for the collective work of the Meeting. Decisions are made only when all present reach unity on what we are called to do. Clerks listen and help focus and articulate the “sense of the meeting” that develops as unity is achieved. Because the clerks’ role requires a broad grasp of the life of the Meeting in all its facets, clerks also play the role of chief coordinator of the Meeting’s activities and communications.

The Assistant Clerk fills in for the clerk when necessary and helps the clerk by taking on various tasks and special projects as needed.

The Recording Clerk takes the minutes of the meeting for business and makes them available to all in the Meeting. Minutes are primarily records of specific decisions of the business meeting and their wording is determined in the course of the meeting. In addition, the minutes occasionally contain notes to reflect the discussion of particular items of business.

The Treasurer receives contributions, makes payments, and manages reserve funds on behalf of the Meeting. The treasurer also tries to keep track of “in-kind” contributions, which are contributions of specific items rather than cash. If you make such a contribution, for example of books for the library, food for simple lunch, or supplies, please report them to the treasurer so that the Meeting can track all the costs of the Meeting’s activities. The treasurer presents financial reports and, in the fall, presents a projected budget to the business meeting.

The Recorder maintains records for the Meeting, including births, deaths, marriages, and changes in membership, as well as the archives of the Meeting.

The Child Activity Coordinators identify individuals in the Meeting who volunteer to provide activities for children during the monthly meeting for business. This helps parents participate in meeting for business.

The Hospitality Coordinators help ensure that we have adequate supplies for simple meal, help coordinate volunteers who provide simple meal, and help coordinate refreshments for special events.

The Mt. Hebron Liaison helps schedule the Meeting’s use of Hebron House and generally maintains open communication between Mt. Hebron Presbyterian Church and our Meeting. If you need to schedule a Meeting event at Hebron House or have a concern about the maintenance of the building, please contact the liaison.