Faith and Practice

preparative meetings

 A Preparative Meeting conducts its Meetings for Worship and Business under the care of a Monthly Meeting to which it reports regularly, while it is preparing to becoming a Monthly Meeting. It may originate when a Worship Group asks to be advanced to the status of Preparative Meeting or when a group of experienced Friends, who wish to organize as a Preparative Meeting, ask to be recognized as one.

 The overseeing Meeting should appoint a committee to provide continuing care and counsel when the Preparative Meeting is established. A Preparative Meeting requires a Clerk, a Treasurer, and a Ministry and Oversight Committee.Other committees may evolve in the manner of a Monthly Meeting. It should hold a Meeting for Business regularly and should regularly send a copy of its minutes to the overseeing committee.

 A Preparative Meeting may not receive members, hold weddings, or otherwise act formally as an established Meeting. Such actions are brought to and carried out through the Monthly Meeting to which it is related. Friends participating in a Preparative Meeting are urged to hold their membership in the overseeing Monthly Meeting. Friends who already are members of other Meetings should request transfer of their membership to the overseeing Monthly Meeting until the Preparative Meeting becomes a Monthly Meeting.

 Ideally, Worship Groups and Preparative Meetings should look forward to becoming Monthly Meetings, through growth and development under the grace and power of God. The step of becoming a Preparative Meeting provides opportunity for members to gain experience as a Friends community. There may be circumstances in which it is desirable for a Worship Group or a Preparative Meeting to continue indefinitely as such.