The test for membership should not be doctrinal agreement, nor adherence to certain testimonies, but evidence of sincere seeking and striving for Truth, together with an understanding of the lines along which Friends are seeking that Truth.

–Friends World Conference, 1952

And oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of believers, several forms of Christians in the school of Christ, every one learning their own lesson, performing their own peculiar service, and knowing, owning, and loving one another in their several places and different performances to their Master, to whom they are to give an account, and not to quarrel with one another about their different practices.

-Isaac Penington, 1659

Basis of Membership

For Friends in this Meeting, waiting in expectant silence for the sense of the Divine Presence has proved the most satisfactory way to worship. From this may come revelations of the love and guiding will of God, revelations inwardly experienced that may be shared in words with others present and may lead to expression in attitude and deed.

It has been found desirable, for mutual help and encouragement and for testing of insights, to organize into Monthly Meetings those who desire to join together in this way of worship.

Friends do not accept a creed as a test of membership because, to them, no creedal statements can be adequate in describing an infinite God.

Twin Cities Friends Meeting is a member of Northern Yearly Meeting which belongs to Friends General Conference. Friends General Conference is associated with Friends World Committee for Consultation. These associations of Friends offer various opportunities and responsibilities to those members of our meeting who are able to participate in their activities.

Becoming a Member

Membership involves a commitment by the individual to the Meeting and by the Meeting to the member. Usually attenders are accepted into membership after at least a year of active participation in the Meeting and they are comfortable with Friends, the meeting, and Friends’ practices and processes.

Clearness Committees and Ministry and Counsel Committee should not be reluctant to suggest that membership be postponed if there are aspects of the attender’s life which seem inconsistent with membership in Twin Cities Friends Meeting. The prospective members should be kindly but truthfully told the reasons for deferral and offered suggestions for resolving the reservations about her/his membership.

Expectation of Members in Twin Cities Friends Meeting

Committee work
The work of the Meeting is carried out by members and attenders voluntarily joining and working on committees. There are about fifteen standing committees, each of which oversees a part of the functioning of our Meeting community. Serving on a committee is both a way of supporting the work of the Meeting and a way of getting to know other members and attenders better. While sometimes it may seem that a particular committees work is trivial, all have an important part in the Meeting. For most committees a one-year commitment is asked; some, such as Ministry and Counsel Committee, have longer terms.

Meeting for Business
Attendance at Meetings for Worship and Meetings for Business is of vital importance. In these meetings our knowledge of the will of the Spirit is deepened and our strength to follow that will comes, both individually and collectively. The Meeting for Business is also where we make decisions that affect the course of the Meeting. Here we consider concerns which we feel are most important and the way the financial and human resources of the Meeting are used.

Financial Contribution
Financial contributions to the Meeting are another important responsibility of membership. While it may not be possible for all members to contribute large sums of money, each member is asked to consider carefully to what extent he/she is able to donate to the work of the Meeting.

Conduct as a Friend
Members are expected to conduct themselves in ways becoming of a Friend. This means striving to live simply, temperately, with high personal integrity, seeking to work for peace and social justice both in personal life and in the wider community of our nation and our world, and seeking to discern the leadings of the Spirit in our lives. To remind ourselves of these ideals, we publish a Query each month, both in the monthly newsletter and the weekly announcement sheet. Each of these Queries poses questions for us to consider for ourselves to help us clarify our relationship with the Spirit, each other, our community, and the world at large.

Membership Process

The following are the procedures for membership in Twin Cities Friends Meeting.

  1. The prospective member should write a letter to the Ministry and Counsel Committee of TCFM, stating why the applicant feels drawn into membership and indicating his/her sympathy with the principles, testimonies and practices of Friends. The letter should indicate whether the person is currently a member of any other religious body. The letter may also include the names of members of TCFM that the applicant would like to have on his/her clearness committee.
  2. The letter requesting membership is read at the next Meeting for Business and additional members of TCFM may offer to serve on the membership clearness committee at this point. Ministry and Counsel will select the committee.
  3. Members with reservations about a membership request should approach Ministry and Counsel Committee to express their reservations. The raises reservations early in the clearness process where they can be brought up in the clearness committees rather than at the end of the process at meeting for business.
  4. Ministry and Counsel will appoint a member of its committee as a coordinator to oversee the membership process, to provide liaison with the prospective members, and to answer any questions the applicant may have about the Meeting or Friends in general.
  5. The coordinator will talk with the applicant about whether he/she wants to meet initially with just the coordinator or begin with a full clearness committee.
  6. The coordinator will give the applicant a TCFM Membership Packet. The prospective members will be encouraged to read the Membership Packet, a book about Friends’ history and one on Friends’ Faith and Practices. If the applicant has not been a frequent attenders at Meetings for Business, the applicant will also be asked by the coordinator to attend several Meeting for Business before the recommendation for membership is made.
  7. When the applicant feels ready, a clearness committee will be held. This is a clarifying process to discern the individual’s readiness, not simply a process of approving or disapproving a membership. It is a two-way discussion with the applicant and the committee. The process can sometimes take several meetings. It is customary for the applicant to leave before the other members so they can discuss the next step. The applicant and the clearness committee asked to wait for a week after the clearness committee meeting before reaching a decision about the appropriate next step.
  8. When the clearness committee and the applicant reach clearness, the committee (through the coordinator) reports this to the Ministry and Counsel Committee. Ministry and Counsel makes a report and recommendation to Meeting for Business for action. If approved, a welcoming committee is then appointed by the Meeting for Business.
  9. Following membership approval by Meeting for Business, the Recorder enters the new member’s name in the official meeting records.
  10. After the individual is accepted into membership, the coordinator will continue to maintain periodic contact with the new member for a period of six months to a year, to support the transition to membership.

Queries for Prospective Members

The breadth and depth of these queries may create an overwhelming feeling for anyone reading them and intending to address them all at once. They should be considered more as a guideline for thought and self-examination and for on-going growth in the direction of Friends’ values. While these queries reflect traditional Friends’ values, Friends need to keep in mind that they are not a "doctrine", but rather are openended, with no true "right" answer for everyone. Thus they do not constitute an examination in order to somehow "quality" for membership in the Religious Society of Friends. Becoming a Quaker is a process, not usually a single event.

  1. Meeting for Worship
    What is my experience in Meeting for Worship? Do I attend Meeting for Worship with heart and mind prepared for worship? How does Meeting for Worship affect my life, my relationship to others, and the world? Is silent Meeting for Worship the most appropriate way for me to join with others in opening myself to spiritual experience?
  2. Ministry
    How do I seek to recognize and develop my spiritual gifts? In what ways do I prepare myself so that I am ready to minister to others when the need arises? Am I sensitive to the needs and insights of others? Do I come to Meeting for Worship clear of any pre- determination to speak or not to speak?
  3. Meeting for Business
    Do I approach Meeting for Business as a spiritual practice? Do I note my own reactions and seek to understand them before speaking? Do I try to rest in a spirit of love and understanding, seeking a right course of action through a patient search for unity with the Spirit? Do I recognize that this search may require me to accept with good grace a decision of the Meeting with which I am not entirely in agreement?
  4. Care for One Another
    How do I contribute to the spirit of community among Meeting members? Am I mindful of my responsibility to face differences honestly? Do I treat with respect and considerateness those who differ from me? Am I careful for the reputation of others?
  5. Religious Education
    Do I nurture my inner life by regularly reading and studying spiritual literature? Am I familiar with the teachings that form the foundation of Quaker traditions (such as the Bible and the records of the lives and experiences of early Friends)? Is my home a place where children will learn, and absorb by example, what it means to live a Quaker life?
  6. Education
    Do I work for the implementation of Friends’ values in our educational system? How do I show concern for the improvement of public education in my community? Am I aware of what Friends’ schools are doing?
  7. Outreach
    What am I doing to make others aware of Friends’ principles? Does my manner of life as a Friend attract others to our Religious Society? Do I greet and engage newcomers to the meeting?
  8. Social Order
    How am I helping to develop a social, economic and political system which will so function as to sustain and enrich life for all? To what extent do I feel personal responsibility for aiding those outside the Meeting who are in need of help? In all my relations with others, do I treat them as brothers and sisters and equals?
  9. Human Rights
    Do I endeavor to cleanse myself of racial prejudice, and firmly but lovingly oppose it in my home, among my friends and acquaintances, and in business? Am I open to personal friendships with individual members of races other than my own? Do I seek to understand members of a diversity of groups, such as people with disabilities, gay men, lesbian women, elderly people, young people, people from other countries, and others, and am I open to friendships with them? Do I actively support equal opportunities for all persons in business, educational and social organizations with which I come in contact?
  10. The Environment
    What am I doing to conserve natural resources for the welfare of future generations? Do I practice and encourage thoughtful family planning? What am I doing to assure adequate food, shelter, education, and love for all people?
  11. Peace and Nonviolence
    In what ways do I work for the establishment of peaceful means of settling differences: internationally, nationally, locally, and personally? Do I seek to "live in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion for all wars?" Do I strive to free myself from inward as well as outward violence-in my family, in my occupation, and in all my relations with others? Do I work to maintain our testimony against military training, preparation for war, and participation in war as inconsistent with the Spirit of Divine love?
  12. Interfaith Cooperation
    Do I seek to understand and appreciate other religious faiths and do I cooperate with them as way opens? Do I seek to recognize and respect the inner light in those with whom I have basic differences?
  13. Friends Life in the Home
    Is my family life consistent with my beliefs? Is my home a place where friends are welcomed and where all members of the family, young and old, receive affection and understanding? Do I encourage my children to share in the activities of the home, the school, the Meeting and the community? Do I choose recreations which will strengthen the physical, mental, and spiritual life of myself and my family, and do I avoid those that may be a hindrance to me and to others? As a parent, do I set an example of good taste and discrimination in reading and in the use of such means of communication as radio and television?
  14. Simplicity
    Do I try to maintain simplicity and moderation in my speech, my manner of living, and daily work? How do I balance my commitments to my daily work with my responsibilities to the Meeting? Am I careful to keep promises, prompt in the payment of debts, and just and honorable in all my dealings?
  15. Self-discipline
    Am I temperate in eating and drinking? Am I alert to the dangers involved in the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs? In all my relations with those who have problems with alcohol or tobacco, or drugs, am I careful to be guided by compassion for the individual rather than by a rigidly moralistic attitude? Do I take responsibility for my sexual behavior? In my sexual relationships to I put into practice simplicity, truthfulness, and genuine care for the well being of myself and others?

Associate Membership

When a child is born to or adopted by a couple or by a single parent who are members of Twin Cities Friends Meeting, the parents are asked whether they would like to request that their child be recorded as an associate member of the Meeting. Parents who would like their children to be associate members of the Meeting are asked to request this of the Committee on Ministry and Counsel.

An adult who joins the Meeting will be asked whether he/she wishes to request associate membership for any minor children. If only one parent joins TCFM that person is asked, where appropriate, to confer with the child’s other parent, in the hope that both parents will agree concerning the associate membership of any child in TCFM.

An adult, such as a grandparent, who joins the Meeting may request associate membership for a child of whom he/she is not legal guardian but nonetheless plays a significant role in the child’s life and spiritual growth. Support for the request from the child’s parent(s) or legal guardian(s) should be demonstrated. Such a request will be taken up by the prospective adult member’s clearness committee. When such a request comes from someone who is already a member, M&C will create a clearness committee to review the request with the member

When an associate member reaches the age of 18, if no formal application for membership has been made, the Committee on Ministry and Counsel will inquire whether he/she wants to go through the process of clarifying and defining his/her relationship to the Meeting. Thus, associate members of 18 or over will be asked whether they wish individual member status or to continue as associate members. An associate member who wants to become a full member will go through the regular membership process. If the individual wishes to continue as an associate member, the committee on Ministry and Counsel will periodically inquire as to whether he/she wishes to continue this status.

New Member Welcoming

In welcoming them to TCFM, new members will be offered the following:

  • A copy of Faith & Practice (or other appropriate publication/subscription — example a one-year subscription to Friends Journal).
  • A celebratory event.
  • Suggestion that the new Friend consider sharing his/her spiritual journey.
  • Photo in the Friends newsletter with biographical sketch.

(None of these would be mandatory, but our desire is that each new Friend is offered this menu of choices.)

Ending Membership

Membership in Twin Cities Friends Meeting can end in the following ways:

  1. When the Meeting approves a request for transfer to another religious body or another Monthly Meeting.
  2. At the discretion of the Meeting when in spite of attempts by the Meeting to make contact, no communication has been had with a nonresident or inactive members for a period of years.
  3. When in the judgment of the Meeting further affiliation of a member is hurtful to the spiritual life of the Meeting. Such disciplinary disownment is a most grave step and shall be taken only after prolonged prayer and loving attempts to remedy the situation.
  4. On receipt and acceptance by the meeting for business of a letter of resignation by a member.
  5. Upon the death of a member.

Transfer of Membership

Transferring membership from one meeting to another within the Religious Society of Friends usually happens a year or so after the member has begun attending a new meeting. Ties with the old meeting are presumed to have been important. Also fate often returns us, within a year, to places we thought we were leaving for years to come. Further, Friends’ Meetings are so different, one from another, that it is unwise to assume that a new meeting will feel like home, based on first impressions.

The formal transfer of a membership is fairly simple, as it assumes the spiritual and emotional work of relocation has already occurred. The member writes his or her old meeting, requesting a transfer of membership to the new meeting. The old meeting has the responsibility of examining this request and considering whether the member has unfinished business within the meeting that needs to be taken care of before the meeting can properly declare that it sees "no impediments to the transfer of this membership." Impediments are major issues, like an abandoned spouse or child, or a large unpaid debt. If the old meeting finds no impediment to transfer, it sends a letter or certificate of transfer to the new meeting. The new meeting accepts the transfer pretty much without question, relying on the member’s first-hand account of her or himself, and trusting the old meeting to have done its work properly. On occasion, Twin Cities Friends Meeting has received letters of transfer for persons who are not known to the clerk or members of Ministry and Counsel. Lacking first-hand knowledge of the prospective members, we have held back the letter from being read at Meeting for Business until we could develop a relationship with the person, or discover that the letter of transfer has been sent to the wrong meeting.

Transfer members are welcomed into Monthly Meeting in the same manner as other new members.

The nature of their purpose and quest as Friends binds members of a Meeting and of the whole Society into an intimate fellowship whose unity is not threatened by the diversity of leadings and experiences which may come to individual Friends. To share in the experience of the Presence in corporate worship, to strive, conscious that other Friends are also striving, to let the Divine Will guide one’s life, to live in a sense of the unfailing Love reaching out to the stumbling followers of Christ is to participate in a spiritual adventure in which Friends come to know one another and to respect one another at a level where superficial differences of age, sex, of wealth or position, of education or vocation, of race or nation are all irrelevant. Within the sort of fellowship, as in a family, griefs and joys, fears and hopes, failures and accomplishments are naturally shared, even as individuality and independence are scrupulously respected.

–New England Yearly Meeting, 1966

DEARLY BELOVED FRIENDS, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all with the measurre of light which is pure and holy may be guided, and so in the light walking and abiding these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, —not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.

-postscript to an epistle from the Meeting of Elders at Balby, 1656

Document history:

  • Working draft developed by Bob Schmitt and Richard Fuller
  • 2.7.92 discussed and some wording changes approved at meeting for business
  • 1.26.93 Additional editing and revisions from M&C review by Jim Flory
  • 4.10.93 Approved by Ministry and Counsel
  • 9.14.2006 Modifications (re: Associate Membership & Welcomings) approved by Ministry and Counsel, based on MWB approved changes

Membership, part 2

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