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.