Meeting Accompaniment Group
Purpose
Accompaniment Group, charged with a function of Ministry and Counsel (M&C), works closely with the M&C Clerk, Yearly Meeting Secretary, and Presiding Clerk to bring sustained and prayerful accompaniment to local meetings and quarters, with particular attention to walking alongside Friends serving their meetings in leadership roles.
Procedures
Accompaniment Group seeks to support and increase the capacity of meetings themselves to respond to the challenges they encounter. As needed or requested by Friends serving in local meetings, Accompaniment Group, meeting monthly and working in partnership with quarterly meetings, where possible and appropriate, assists with referrals to other Friends, including local meetings with relevant experience, and resources related to a wide range of concerns.
Friends serving as part of this body:
- Connect with clerks of meetings and quarters, as well as clerks of their M&Cs, regarding the life of the meeting
- Visit meetings
- Provide specific support and presence with monthly and quarterly meetings in times of a particular need for accompaniment
- Read and reflect on state of society reports
- Pay attention to news shared in local meeting newsletters
- Consider reports of Friends traveling and visiting
- Participate regularly in monthly meeting leader calls, and contribute insights to planning for these calls
- Support and attend wider NEYM events, including Meeting Care Day, Meeting for Listening, Living Faith and Sessions
- Ensure appropriate information sharing with relevant partners (M&C Clerk, Secretary, Presiding Clerk, staff), in ways that are consistent and timely while maintaining appropriate confidentiality
- Coordinate and consult with the Ministry and Eldership Resource Group
- Invite Friends to join in this work as needed, in support of particular situations or needs for accompaniment
- Offer insights to inform the annual NEYM State of Society report
Composition
Five to seven Friends, nominated by the NEYM Nominating Committee, with a clerk also nominated by the NEYM Nominating Committee, approved by the Yearly Meeting.
In consideration of the diversities of context across our region, local meetings and quarters are encouraged to suggest Friends with relevant gifts for consideration by the Nominating Committee to serve as part of this group.
The Presiding Clerk, Clerk of NEYM M&C and Yearly Meeting Secretary serve ex officio as members of this group.
The clerk of this group serves as a member of the Coordinating & Advisory Committee and ex officio on the Ministry and Eldership Resource Group
Term of Service: Given the importance of ongoing trusting relationships, context, and experience in this work, Friends will be nominated for staggered, renewable five-year terms.
Gifts and experience needed: Spiritual and emotional maturity, gifts in oversight, pastoral care, and accompaniment, conflict resolution, prayerful holding, boundary-setting, communication, and administration. Capacity for holding sensitive matters in confidence, with consultation as needed. Experience (past or present) serving in leadership roles in their own local meeting. Experience walking with those in servant leadership roles, mentoring, being a non-anxious presence. Joy in connection with Friends, love for and commitment to the nurture of local meetings as the foundation of Friends’ life together.
