|
|
MINISTRY & OVERSIGHTThe committee for Ministry and Oversight should be continually watchful for ways to advance the welfare and usefulness of the Monthly meeting, and should welcome at any time suggestions or requests from members of the Meeting for action and counsel. It should meet as often as needed, but at least every three months, making an annual report on the spiritual condition of the Meeting. This report may go to the Quarterly or Yearly Meeting Ministry and Oversight as may be determined by the Yearly Meeting. The committee should report to the Monthly Meeting for Business at any appropriate time. Subcommittees may be established for any particular responsibility of the whole committee. In some small meetings, the functions of the Committee may be carried by the Meeting as a whole. Membership on the Committee should be by Monthly Meeting appointment for a three-year term, subject to reappointment and approval of the Meeting for an additional term. One -third of the members could be appointed each year. It should include a variety of ages and talents. These members should develop a capacity for friendship, and be able to draw to them those who need spiritual advice, comfort and understanding. Presently recorded ministers would also serve on this committee. Preferably the YM Nominating Committee chooses a chairperson. Functions of the Monthly Meeting M&O Committee are to foster the spiritual growth of the Meeting and enhance the religious life and fellowship of its members, including especially the strengthening of corporate worship. The functions normally are: To review the spiritual condition of the Meeting in a searching self-examination of strengths and weaknesses, and of the efforts made to foster spiritual growth. To foster the commitment of youth to Friends principles through family participation in monthly meeting activities. To encourage visitation among members, regular attenders and visitors to the Meeting for worship, and to acquaint attenders and seekers with literature and information. To communicate with non-resident Friends occasionally, inquiring as to their desire to remain in membership. To consider and recommend action to the MM for Business concerning transfers, applications for, or release from membership. To counsel with youth concerning their membership commitment as adults. To review requests for marriage under the care of the Meeting. To assist the family in funeral or memorial services, if there is no separate Funeral Committee, and to record information on individual members' burial plans. To be sensitive to physical and emotional burdens of members, and to direct the Meeting toward relieving these needs. To encourage and/or question an individual in the expression of his or her concerns, in Meeting for Worship or Business. Particular responsibility for care and counseling lies with the Committee on Ministry and Oversight. Members of this committee should be appointed with the special qualifications of a counselor in mind: warmth, sympathy, the ability to listen without judging, the ability to keep confidences, spiritual insight without prejudice, and practical resourcefulness. Friends should learn to recognize these gifts in themselves and in others and to nurture them so that there may be greater sensitivity to the needs of others. Friends should visit often together in their homes. Special meetings such as study, discussion and spiritual gatherings can foster deeper fellowship between older and newer members and attenders. In counseling, the Meeting for Worship can be a basic resource. Through corporate worship, the strength and power of God's love may open a way that reaches to the hidden depths of personal problems. In worship, Friends seek to grow in spiritual and emotional maturity, in understanding of their common human weaknesses and of their common recourse to divine love. Since members of the Ministry and Oversight Committee are concerned to nurture and strengthen the Meeting for Worship, they must have concern for the well-being of all who make up the Meeting and should know them well. The Meeting should be sensitive to those who may not recognize their need for counseling, or who hesitate to seek help. The following suggestions are made as guides for the Committee and to those entrusted with counseling when a particular need has arisen: Listening is the key part of the helping process. To listen helpfully and creatively involves patience, a desire to understand, and avoidance of giving advice. One need not have faced the same problem to be helpful. The counselor may suggest new ways of looking at the problem and possible solutions, but decisions should be left to the person. Catering to wishes which do not answer the basic problem is no solution and should be avoided. Growth, independence and standing on ones own feet are to be encouraged. Emotional support in a hard decision can be most helpful. A problem may be too serious for a Meeting to handle, in which case professional opinion should be sought. Members of the Committee need to have a knowledge of resources in the wider community for counseling assistance, such as clinics, family and social services, physicians and psychiatrists. The Meeting may be helpful at the time professional help is required, in practical ways such as Friends offer in other times of stress, illness or sorrow. Standing by, listening, helping to plan can be of great help in a critical time. Persons are sometimes drawn to a Meeting because it promises help in personal problems. A meeting should not seem to offer solutions or aid beyond its powers. We all have positive and negative feelings about ourselves, about life and about one another. We need to face and accept these feelings in others and in ourselves, and to see them in the light of love, which transcends our human limitations. Friends who undertake counseling should not be deterred from accepting this responsibility because of their own human weaknesses. They must be willing and able to accept criticism with humility and without retaliation. They will learn from their mistakes, from one another, and especially from the ones they are called up on to help. Parents sometimes have difficulty in communicating effectively with their own adolescent children at the very time when important decisions are being made concerning basic truths and values. Young Friends broach such questions most freely in their youth meetings and discussions. The committee may be able to find person who relate themselves readily to young people and so counsel them effectively. Counseling works both ways. Those who listen to what the young people are saying may derive therefrom a clearer understanding of difficult aspects of life and fresh insights into how to approach problems. When a Friend plans to visit Meetings outside his/her own yearly Meeting, he/she may ask for an introductory minute stating the nature of the travel and his/her connection with his home Meeting. Sometimes a Friend is concerned to travel in the ministry, carrying a special message or proposal to other Friends' meetings. When a Monthly or Yearly Meeting grants a minute to such a Friend, it might see that this service is not hindered by lack of funds. In this case, a committee should keep in touch with the Friend and make sure whether the traveler may be in need of other assistance. Upon returning the Friend should present the endorsed minute to the granting Meeting. When a visitor from another meeting presents such a minute to a Monthly Meeting, it should be endorsed by the Clerk and returned to the visitor. If necessary, the host Meeting should take care of hospitality and set up a meeting for fellowship with the visitor. Yearly Meeting for Ministry and Oversight meets during the week of Yearly Meeting at the same location, at a prearranged time. Its membership consists of members of the Monthly meeting Committees. Clerks are appointed each year to serve the next year as the Meeting may determine. The Yearly meeting for Ministry and Oversight receives State of the Meeting reports from the Monthly Meeting Committees. Concerns requiring consideration may also arise with in the sessions themselves. The Meeting should consider all matters having reference to spiritual needs of the total membership of the Yearly Meeting. It could explore ways of helping Monthly and Quarterly meetings through literature, correspondence, visitation and seminars possibly available at Yearly meeting. If requested, it should assist Quarterly or Monthly Meetings in organizing, recognizing, and laying down Meetings for Worship and Business. The Yearly Meeting may have other duties for each Meeting for Ministry and Oversight. |