Recording Quaker Ministry

“Creating new systems of support and accountability for Quaker ministers. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Ashley Wilcox New Garden Friends Meeting Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

I plan to create a streamlined, comprehensive Quaker recording process that meetings and yearly meetings can use to record ministers. I have heard from many meetings that they would like to record individuals as ministers, but they do not know where to begin or what the process should include.

I will reach out to meetings that currently have recording processes as well as gathering information about recording processes, past and present, from Quaker archives. I also plan to interview people who have been through a recording process (especially those whose process went badly) and ask to interview them about their experiences.

My goal is to provide best practices for nurturing, naming, and recording ministry, as well as providing robust support and accountability for ministers. I will post this recording process and other resources online and make them available to meetings and yearly meetings. This recording process will also serve as a template for other denominations reconsidering their own ordination processes.

I have carried a concern for supporting ministers in the Religious Society of Friends (especially women in ministry) for fifteen years. Our current regional organizations are either unable or unwilling to provide Friends ministers with the support and accountability they so desperately need. Because of my connections and experience, I am the person in the best position to respond to this persistent problem among Friends.