Glossary of Quaker Terms
Area Quaker Meeting (AQM) or Area Meeting (AM)
Used in 2 senses:
(a) An area community of Friends (akin to a parish, but often covering a much wider geographical area such as a County) in which membership resides. Usually comprises several Local Meetings (formerly Preparative Meetings and Recognised Meetings). Each Local Meeting is typically based in, and serves, a town or village within the MM area.
(b) A meeting for decision making and administration. Typically the community meets once a month to conduct this Meeting for Business. Prior to 2007, the term “Monthly Meeting” was used. That name will probably take some time to fall completely out of usage, and will of course still be found in older documents.
Attender
Someone who participates regularly in Quaker worship but who has not yet sought and gained membership in the Meeting.
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM)
An annual gathering for worship and business open to members of all Area Meetings (formerly Monthly Meetings). This body is akin to a diocese in other Christian communities, but with advisory rather than determinative authority over smaller units. Britain Yearly Meeting has a staff which provides services to Area Meetings (Monthly Meetings), represents the Yearly Meeting to the general public, and carries on the projects initiated by the Yearly Meeting in session.
Note that Friends use the word “Meeting” (prefixed appropriately) in 2 different senses - to describe:
(1) an administrative unit, or the people who comprise such a unit;
(2) the occasions on which representatives of an administrative unit meet face-to-face to conduct business.
Centred
Describes the state of an individual or group in touch with the divine presence.
Clearness
Confidence that an action is consistent with the divine will. Clearness can be tested through a Meeting for Clearness.
Clerk
A person who takes a Meeting or committee through business and records minutes.
Concern
A spiritual compulsion for a particular action or service. It is usually tested at a Meeting for Business to see if it is a true concern.
Elders
Members of a Meeting appointed to be responsible for the ordering of the spiritual life of that Meeting.
Friends House
Administrative offices of Religious Society of Friends in Britain, where Britain Yearly Meeting Committees operate. It also includes a library, bookshop, archives and Meeting House.
Gathered Meeting
A worshipping group when an awareness and presence of God is felt.
General Meeting
A regional unit, comprising two or more Area Meetings (formerly Monthly Meetings), which meets on a regular basis to explore Quaker issues in greater depth.
Inner Light
That of God within us.
Leadings or Openings
The sense of divine guidance or revelation.
Local Meeting (LM)
Used in 2 senses:
(a) A local community of Friends within an Area Meeting who gather regularly in Meeting for Worship.
(b) A meeting for decision making and administration for a Local Meeting. It is one of the business meetings, and was formerly called “Preparative Meeting” because its purpose is to prepare for the Area Meeting business meeting.
Prior to 2007, the terms “Preparative Meeting” and “Recognised Meeting” were used for Local Meetings. Those names will probably take some time to fall completely out of usage, and will of course still be found in documents created before the change.
Meeting House
The Quaker equivalent of a church building. It can also be applied to the room within a building where Meeting for Worship is held. The term is intended to be suggestive of simplicity, and also to emphasize the principle that the church exists in the people, not in any building.
Meeting for Business
A gathering of Friends for the purpose of making administrative and business decisions, at either Local Meeting or Area Meeting level. Also applies to committee meetings. The expressions “Hope so” (meaning “I agree”), and “In right ordering” (meaning “in accordance with Friends practices") can sometimes be heard at such meetings.
Meeting for Sufferings (MfS)
A body selected to do the work of Britain Yearly Meeting when the latter is not in session. The executive work is undertaken by Committees of individual Friends assisted by paid staff.
Meeting for Worship (MfW)
A gathering of Friends for the purpose of worship. When an awareness and presence of God is felt, the Meeting is said to be “gathered”.
Ministry
When a person is inspired by the spirit to speak in Meeting for Worship, that is described as Ministry.
Minute
A summary statement of the Meeting’s understanding of the divine will in relation to the matter brought before the Meeting for Business. The clerk offers a draft minute to the Meeting before recording a form of words that the Meeting can unite upon.
Pastoral Friend
Members of a Meeting appointed to be responsible for the general welfare of all those in that Meeting.
Sense of the Meeting
What the clerk is seeking to record when drafting a minute.
Testimonies
Cumulative lived witness of generations of Friends which includes testimonies to Equality, Peace, Simplicity, Truth and Sustainability.
Truth
A synonym for Christ or the divine guide; the complex of Quaker ethical traditions; the Quaker gospel.
