The clerk of a Quaker meeting or committee is a servant leader who helps guide the group’s work. They prepare agendas and leads meetings for worship with a concern for business. They help the group listen carefully and find unity in decisions. The clerk is also a key point of communication and may represent the meeting to other Quaker groups. Clerks may be found as leaders in monthly, quarterly, or yearly meetings, or as equivalents to board chairs of Quaker nonprofits and schools.
If you are new to clerking or interested in going deeper in your experience of Quaker clerkship, the resources below can help.
How to Clerk a Quaker Business Meeting. Original video from QuakerSpeak.com, a project of Friends Journal. Filmed and edited by Jon Watts.
Introductory Resources
- Role of Quaker Clerk, Abington [PA] Monthly Meeting
- Virtual Clerking, Emily Provance, New York Yearly Meeting
- Anti-Racist Clerking Screener, Eppchez Yes, FGC’s Institutional Assessment Implementation Committee
Interviews
Why Quakers Value Process Over Outcome. Original video from QuakerSpeak.com, a project of Friends Journal. Filmed and edited by Jon Watts.
Related Books
- Quaker Process for Friends on the Benches by Mathilda Navias
- Handbook for the Presiding Clerk by David O. Stanfield
- Where Should I Stand (ebook) by Elizabeth Boardman
- Fostering Vital Friends Meetings: A Handbook for Working with Quaker Meetings by Jan Greene and Marty Walton
- A Practical Mysticism: How Quaker Process Opens Us to the Promptings of the Divine (Pendle Hill Pamphlet #453) by Elizabeth Meyer
- Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations (Revised Edition) by R.Taylor McLean, Suzanne G. Farnham, Stephanie A Hull
- For children: Approved! A Story about Quaker Meeting for Business by Nancy Haines
Last updated on December 19, 2025.