 September/October 2000 (XXXVIII 4) |
hat’s in a name? One might hope that the name of a Yearly Meeting working group would clearly indicate what that group does, what it’s about. That did not seem to be the case for the Family Relations Concerns Group, which for many years has exercised as much care for individuals and for Meetings as for family relationships.
This past year, faced with a loss of leadership, a decline in membership, and a weakened sense of purpose, the group “re-birthed” and then re-named itself "Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members." Its participants believe this new name more accurately conveys what has long been the group’s actual focus.
The group began in the early 1930s as a response to divorcing couples in the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia (Arch Street Orthodox). Out of basic Friends principles of care for one another and for the Meeting community, the Marriage Council was formed to assist those whose marriages were foundering. The committee broadened to the whole of the Yearly Meeting and to the whole family in the 1940s, when it became the Family Relations Committee.
Many of us were drawn into a Quaker Meeting by the quality of the meeting for worship — its silence, its gatheredness, its strength, its inspiration. We often come back, we often stay, for other reasons as well — the quality of the community, its care, its vitality, its friendship, its unity. These two aspects of Friends Meetings are usually related: When the community weakens, the worship often diminishes as well.
Over the decades the Family Relations Committee has provided guidance and support to Monthly Meetings and members in a wide variety of ways. It has sponsored workshops for parents, couples, and Overseers, as well as other groups. It has published booklets and pamphlets on issues of relationships and major life transitions, and, since 1993, a quarterly Pastoral Care Newsletter, which now reaches 101 Friends Meetings in 4 countries and 30 states to provide guidance and suggest resources for the care of individuals and meeting communities.
In 1954, the year before unification, the two Yearly Meetings jointly minuted approval for the Friends Counseling Service, which today continues to provide psychological counseling to individuals, families, and sometimes even Meetings in need. Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members also oversees the Natalie Clifford Barney Trust, a fund designated for family planning that has been used to support CHOICE, a professional and peer-supported hotline and educational agency for reproductive health issues for young people.
Most recently, Arlene Kelly has initiated a project for Deepening and Strengthening our Meetings as Faith Communities, which draws upon the leadership of professional counselors and the spiritual support of a group of other Friends.
In all these ways, your Yearly Meeting continues to provide guidance for Meetings and members, and also to bear testimony to some of the ways we actually do care for one another. If you or your Meeting would like further information about any of these projects, you may contact Steve Gulick, staff coordinator for Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members, at 215-241-7068 or at steveg@pym.org.
Annette Benert
Lehigh Valley Meeting (PA)
Clerk of Care and Counsel for Meetings and Members
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM