Quakerism Reborn

Ethical Quakers arise! We need to stage a Schism, to break away from Beanite Quakers. 

Why?  

• God's children aren't universally welcomed for membership as Beanites. 

• Quaker meeting houses are expensive to run. Ethesian Quaker meeting houses will be in the cloud, where overhead is minimal.  No donations will be necessary.

• The traditional Quaker population is shrinking. Quaker principles are good.  We need to grow Quakerism, by making it easy to join.

• We cut our carbon footprint by bringing God's house home.

•  Beanite Quaker Problems usually center around money and capital assets.  Infighting results. This divides a Meeting, and breeds contempt between attendees. 

Let's build Quakerism anew,  using the best Beanite Quaker traditions, under simplified guidelines. All the same religious philosophies will apply.

Meetings should be limited to about 20 members, plus children. Meetings may grow to double that size. Then they should split. 

Division of oversized Monthly Meetings should be by affinity. 

Mailing lists for Google Groups newsletters shall inform the Membership lists. Membership should be confirmed manually, by email, once a year.  

Membership rolls shall be reported to the Pacific Yearly Meeting, hopefully for eventual inclusion into the worldwide Quaker headcount.

Ethesian Quakers could tag doorknobs in their local areas, directing newcomers to websites where seekers can learn more.

Informal meetings can congregate outdoors. Hybrid meetings might form, using phone cameras, wherever desirable.

There will be an hour of unprogrammed silent worship. First Day School will be held in a breakout Zoom room for the first 50 minutes. Then children and teachers will merge with the main Silent Worship Zoom Room.  Attendees should try to only break silence in the last ten minutes, while the children are present.

One parent should head up First Day School.

Monthly Meetings might be named after local landmarks. Or the location of an outdoor meeting place might be translated into Three Words, thus naming the Monthly Meeting.

One clerk will host the Zoom Room, and convene Monthly Business Meetings.  

Monthly Business Meetings shall be recorded by Zoom, to be saved as minutes.

All Monthly Meetings shall welcome sojourners. 

Committees can spontaneously form. 

When disagreement arises between committee members, competing factions should split into separate committees. 

If there is any interest in funding community outreach work, Monthly Meetings can Incorporate, and attain 501 c3 nonprofit status.  A board of three directors would be required.  A bank account would be created in the name of the Monthly Meeting, toward funding committee-driven initiatives.

Donations made to committees should be earmarked for use by one person. That person will champion a cause, and empower others to do God's work.

A Monthly Meeting may opt to apply for a micropower FM station license. A board of five directors is required to do this (all living within the area of coverage).