California, Indiana groups show new way for meetings to partner

Churches removed from Northwest Yearly Meeting and those considering leaving started discussions in February about what a new thing might look like. Two associations – one in California and another in the Midwest – give meetings examples for a way to be together.

The Western Association of the Religious Society of Friends (WARSF) is an organization of independent Friends meetings. Each church has its own 501(c)3 tax status and does its own recording.

WARSF, a collection of three California meetings, is similar to the New Association of Friends, based in Indiana, as both groups are part of Friends United Meeting and have full status in Friends World Committee for Consultation and the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

WARSF has minuted inviting churches leaving NWYM to join them. It’s also been suggested by one member of WARSF that they might be interested in joining something created by monthly meetings in the Pacific Northwest.

The New Association is incorporated in Indiana. A member there provided the Articles of Incorporation, filed in April 2013, along with the association’s bylaws.

Points of interest from the bylaws:

“Individual Friends who are members, regular attenders, or supporters of monthly meetings that do not participate in the New Association” may themselves be members of the New Association if they “desire to participate on a personal basis.”

“Monthly meetings and individuals that desire to maintain affiliation with another body of Friends are allowed to do so.”

“Release from membership shall be without penalty or retribution.”

Decisions are made “according to the Quaker process of prayerfully seeking unity under the leading of God.”

A process for removal of the presiding clerk is defined in section 9.6.

“No property belonging to the New Association of Friends shall be deeded, assigned, or in any manner transferred or disposed of without the passage of a resolution by the meeting for business.”