Ministry but not a recorded minister? Vocabulary

Conflict is a Gift of God Friend is asking Meeting to recognize his ministry and Meeting is having vocabulary  lessons.

One vocabulary lesson is about Faith and Practice, ministry, and how we have ministries under our care but do not record ministers. RantWoman is not prepared to interact about the history of the North Pacific Yearly Meeting (NPYM) Faith and Practice, but in the NPYM Faith and Practice, the term Released Friend is the only applicable concept.

 

Ah, but Friend from another Yearly Meeting insists we can only have a ministry under our care if we also have ministers.

 Um no.

Do we need theological excursions about "We are all ministers of God?" Will the word God derail the conversation, especially since the NPYM Faith and Practice and ongoing revision have all sorts of ways of working with that word?

How about the priesthood of all believers? RantWoman will be fine if someone is called to go there; RantWoman is clear for herself of need to go another direction in a separate post.

 RantWoman can cite a whole long list of documents introducing Friends and specific ministries done by NPYM Friends that do not use the term minister. RantWoman can cite these documents from memory; if someone wants to know exactly what wording is used , they are going to have to ask someone with better eyes and do research themselves, and on p-p-paper to boot!

 List of such documents in more or less reverse chronological order dating back at least to the 1980’s:

 --Two letters of support for people serving as hospital chaplains.

 --A letter of recognition for a Friend with a leading to work about homelessness in our area of Seattle.

 --At least two letters of visitation for specific Friends while incarcerated.

 --A letter of support for a Friend working against an anti-Gay rights initiative.

 --Multiple documents related to the Monroe Worship Group, the family worship connected with the Monroe Worship Group.

--The original process of establishing Alternatives to Violence in WA prisons.


RantWoman does not as of today's Light see a need to interact with all of these documents as part of the question of further care of a specific ministry, but MIGHT think to add such review to a to-do list for ongoing support of said ministry.

RantWoman does urge that Friends hold Business Meeting in the Light.