Membership

 

Any visitor to Gwynedd Meeting is welcome to return to worship with us as a regular attender. Attenders wanting to apply for membership in Gwynedd Meeting should make a formal request to the clerk of the Meeting as outlined in Faith and Practice. The clerk refers the request to the Care and Counsel committee. We form a subcommittee to meet with the attender to seek clearness about membership as well as a subcommittee to welcome the attender to membership.


Becoming A Member

It is not necessary to wait to be invited to join a Friends meeting; people decide for themselves when they are ready to commit themselves to membership.

A person who has been coming to meeting regularly, and who . . . 

  • has been learning more and more about Friends through reading Faith and Practice and other Quaker literature;
  • who is becoming active in the life of the meeting;
  • attending meeting for worship for business; and
  • who has come to feel at home among its members,

        . . .  may feel ready to apply for membership.

This is the time to write a letter to the clerk outlining the feeling of being drawn into fellowship with Friends and of being in unity with Friends' principles and testimonies. The clerk forwards the letter to Worship and Ministry, which at its next meeting appoints a membership clearness committee to meet with the applicant. This committee reports back to Worship and Ministry, which then makes a recommendation at the next meeting for business.

The applying member should not be present at that business meeting. When the request for membership is approved, a welcoming committee is appointed. 
 
Refer also Meeting Membership section of the Care and Counsel page.
 

Arthur D'Adamo, 12/25/2020
Hello
Hello and welcome to our meeting. If you are a new visitor, we have a page for you to get to know us and learn more about planning a visit.
Click here to see more.

Planning your Visit

 

New to Meeting for Worship? 


MfW 3 small
If you've never attended a Meeting for Worship, we hope you will come worship with us -- give it a try.   

Most Quaker meetings, at least in this part of the country, are so-called "unprogrammed" meetings. This means that our meetings for worship are not led by a minister, but are largely conducted in silence.  Typically, a Clerk or other Member of the Meeting will close worship with a simple "Good morning friends" but otherwise the meeting may be completely silent. 



ripples

Members and attenders are always invited to speak out of the silence with a message about their spiritual journey, although messages are not responded to directly .

A message has been described as a pebble tossed into a pond.  The resulting ripples are received by others in the meeting and may contribute to their own spiritual journeys. 



Continuing Revelation

In the Religious Society of Friends, continuing revelation comes from the Inner light or the light within. This light has traditionally been identified as the spirit of Christ or Christ within, although not all Friends associate the inner light with Christ. It is understood as the presence of God which provides illumination and guidance to the individual and through individuals to the group.

Because Friends believe that revelation is ongoing, we have no set creed or dogmas and we believe that new truth is revealed to us as we continue our spiritual journeys individually and with one another.

As early Friends listened to the inner light and endeavored to live accordingly, a common set of beliefs gradually emerged, which became known as Quaker testimonies. Although rooted in the immediate experience of the community of Friends, these testimonies are based on what Friends believe are verified in the Bible, especially the Gospels regarding the life and teachings of Jesus, and in our ongoing discernment of God’s desire for us to fulfill loving relationships with each other and the world.

PYM (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting) Quakers consider the inner light to be above and beyond the Bible and other formalistic, written dogmas. We trust that the continuing revelation of the inner light speaks to us in our everyday lives.  


 

Hubb Manager, 10/15/2019