Friends and Clerking: FGConnections, Spring 2004
A Practical Mystic's Guide to Committee Clerking
By Deborah Haines
Janice Domanik, past presiding clerk of Friends General Conference, clerks FGC’s Central Committee, a practical mystic in action.
Having served for three years as clerk of the FGC Centennial Committee, and for another three as clerk of Advancement and Outreach, I find myself fascinated by the dynamics of committee clerking. Committee meetings, I have come to believe, should be treated like any other “meeting for worship with a concern for business.” Committee work should be seen as an extension of worship. Applying that insight has meant letting go of a lot of my former assumptions about what is necessary or practical. I still have not gotten it right in practice. My ability to envision how it ought to be done is well ahead of my ability to implement what I envision. But I think there is great promise in exploring the spiritual context of committee clerking. I offer these thoughts as a preliminary framework.
Everything we do in the presence of God is a kind of ministry.
Whenever we remember that we are in the presence of God, everything seems to be illuminated from within by divine radiance. Every task, no matter how mundane, becomes an act of worship, a word of praise offered to God. This is the basis for Quaker business practice. We call it “meeting for worship with an attention to business” because it is grounded in an awareness of God’s presence. We begin with worship, end with worship, and ask for a moment of silence whenever awareness of the Light seems to be slipping. These practices are just as important for committees as for monthly meetings.
Don’t be lulled into thinking that you are there to get the job done and can dispense with the silence. As clerk, one of your most important tasks is to hold the work of your committee in the Light. Remember the transformational energy available whenever we acknowledge the presence of God. Try to create an atmosphere of worship, tenderness, and deep listening. Begin and end with times of open worship, and return to intentional worship whenever tempers fray or weariness sets in.
We need to discern our own particular gifts and leadings.
It’s true that everything we do can be offered to God, but certain things seem to awaken our spirit and draw us deeper into the Light. Each of us needs to discover for ourselves what those things are—what we are drawn by, or led to. There may be concerns that tug at our hearts. There may be particular kinds of work or service that revitalize us and connect us to a stream of divine energy. There may be times and places where we encounter beauty, compassion, love, healing, truth, joy, Light. The most important work we can do as individuals is to discern what we are called to.
As a committee clerk, you can explore your own calling, and help others explore theirs. Try to discern the gifts and leadings of each member of your committee. Notice what they get excited about; what makes them light up inside. Pay attention to what they say about their longings and joys and worries. Give the committee opportunities for worship sharing around questions like: “How is God at work in my life?” “Where do I find joy and love in my life?” “What am I truly called to do?” Nurturing the individual ministry and service of each member of the committee will increase the energy of the whole.
In any given group of Quakers you are likely to come across at least one former or current clerk. Here are just a few of the clerking positions the people in this picture hold or have held: clerk of Iowa YM (Conservative), former clerk of Lake Erie YM and current clerk of FGC’s Traveling Ministries Program, clerk of Salem Quarterly Meeting (of Philadelphia YM), and assistant clerk of FGC’s Advancement and Outreach Committee.
One of the amazing things about Quakerism is the way it unites radical individualism and a radical sense of community.
Quakerism is one of the few religions in the world that practices “group mysticism.” As we each delve into our individual center in worship, we encounter each other in “that which is eternal.” We are gathered into a sense of profound unity. That same sense of unity, a “sense of the meeting,” is what we are reaching for in any committee meeting or meeting for business.
Your committee is not just a collection of individuals following their own leadings. It has corporate work to do, and must engage in corporate discernment. It may be helpful to lead the committee in worship sharing to come up with a statement of mission. (The FGC Discernment in Long Term Planning process is a wonderful tool for doing this kind of work.) Try to identify not just what the work is, but why it has value. Then keep that sense of mission in mind as you plan projects, assign tasks, and focus on day to day decisions.
The process is just as important as the product.
Barry Morley’s Pendle Hill pamphlet Beyond Consensus is a wonderful introduction to this idea. When we focus on the product, we are tempted to paper over unresolved differences in the name of consensus, often generating a lowest-common-denominator solution that will not stand the test of time. When we focus on the process—opening ourselves to the Inward Light and truly attending to each other—the sense of the meeting that emerges is strong and deeply rooted, knitting the group together in shared experience of the divine.
Committee clerks are often tempted (or pressured) to focus on products. There are decisions that need to be made, and tasks that need to be done. It may seem necessary to hurry the process along, or to strong-arm Friends to take on jobs no one seems led to do. Resist that urge! Focus on keeping the process grounded. Remind yourself that a good tree will inevitably bear good fruit, in its own time. If the committee cannot reach unity on a particular matter, even after extended worship, the matter needs to be set aside. If there are no volunteers to take on particular tasks, even after centered worship, those tasks need to be set aside. You may have to bring the problem to the monthly meeting (or larger organization) to ask for guidance, or for additional volunteers. You should also keep in mind the possibility that those particular decisions and tasks are simply not what the committee is meant to take on, however logical or necessary they may seem. The process of attending to God and each other is always more important than the product.
There is no time but the present.
We encounter God in the here and now. Past and future are theoretical. It is only in the present moment that we can experience and respond to the flow of divine energy. The more moments we use well and experience deeply, the more alive and fulfilled we will feel.
In other words, your committee’s time is precious. Don’t waste it. As Quakers we are committed to taking as long as necessary to reach unity, but we are most certainly not required to take longer than necessary. The measure of a good meeting is how much satisfaction we feel in what we have accomplished, divided by how much time we wasted trying to get to that point. There are a number of things you can do to maximize the sense of achievement and minimize the waste:
- Have a written agenda. This will force you to spend time before the meeting thinking about just what needs to be done. Remember to hold it in the Light, not just think it through.
- As much as possible, rely on written reports and proposals. This will encourage advance preparation, and keep the committee focused on what it is being asked to consider. Confusion eats up time and energy.
- Have each report or proposal presented by the person most involved to provide a personal touch and an infusion of energy. (If you find you are doing all the presentations, you need to get more members actively involved in the work!)
- Finally, present each item as if it were a question for worship sharing.
Explain the guidelines for worship sharing. Make clear that you expect Friends
to approach the business in hand in a way that is radically different from
ordinary discussion. Here are the basics:
1. Allow silence before and after each person speaks.
2. Listen attentively and respectfully.
3. Do not react to or critique what others have said, but express your own concerns and insights as deeply and honestly as you can.
4. Speak as much as possible from your own experience.
5. Expect to speak only once during consideration of a given item.
Paradoxical as it may seem, this approach is likely to achieve a decision, grounded on a sense of the meeting, far more quickly than a back and forth discussion would. Everyone has an opportunity not only to speak, but to be listened to. Everyone is encouraged to dig more deeply and share more honestly than they normally would. When everyone has spoken once, there may well be a clear sense of how the committee is led to move forward. If not, you as clerk might reframe the question, focusing on the particular issue that seems to divide the group, and offer it again for worship sharing, or ask Friends to hold it in the Light in open worship. If unity cannot be reached in this way, there is little point in continuing to wrangle over this particular item. Set it aside. Ask a few Friends to explore the question further and bring back a recommendation to the next meeting. Move on.
At our best, we are servants, not masters.
It is only human to become deeply invested in our own special concerns and projects. It is only natural to want our beliefs and opinions to be accepted by others. A certain amount of passion and tenacity, I believe, is extremely useful in breaking down barriers and overcoming inertia. But we should not forget that we all belong to God, and are all equally beloved of God. We need to give over our own willfulness. We need to value compassion, openness, and service over power and authority.
A committee clerk is responsible for exercising a certain amount of leadership. Setting agendas, establishing guidelines for the conduct of committee business, holding the mission of the committee in the Light, trying to discern how individual leadings are woven into the whole, offering encouragement and counsel, phrasing minutes to capture a “sense of the meeting” are all leadership responsibilities. But the clerk should never seek to dominate. The committee is not a tool for implementing the clerk’s ideas about what ought to be done. It is an organic entity, with a life and spirit of its own. Clerking thus requires flexibility, openness, and a large dose of humility. The clerk is the servant of the committee, as it offers itself in service to God.
