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Membership
Jun. 7th, 2024 09:28 am This is the weekend that the Area Meeting will accept or reject my application for membership of the Society of Friends. Rejection is most unlikely. The Meeting is convening at Hurstmonceux (pronounced Hurst-mon- sue) and we've arranged to attend it. If we're going to be members it would be a good idea to know how the Society functions and what it feels like outside of our own (I think untypical) Meeting House.
The Society of Friends used to be sustained by a network of sprawling, interrelated famiily groups. I am myself a scion of one of those families- the Allens. I remember- just- Allen family gatherings at Aunt Margaret's big house in Surrey. The older Allens were a formidable crew- a bit like the Forsytes, a bit like the Corleones- only more ethical.....
That generation- born around the end of the 19th century- was the last. Their children and children's children dropped away from the clan and the faith. In my memory- from the 1950s- the senior Allens are dressed in Edwardian gear- but I don't suppose that can have been the case and the memory- like most memories- must be false....
The word for folk like the Allens is birthright Quakers- though it's now disapproved of for its overtones of exclusivity and hierarchy. Our Meeting has one or two birthrighters, but most of us came into into the Society by other routes- many rather late in life. Like most churches (though it isn't a church in the steeple house sense of the word) the Society is gradually deliquescing- mote by mote, flake by flake- and is happy to recruit any random character who happens to drop by.....
The Society of Friends used to be sustained by a network of sprawling, interrelated famiily groups. I am myself a scion of one of those families- the Allens. I remember- just- Allen family gatherings at Aunt Margaret's big house in Surrey. The older Allens were a formidable crew- a bit like the Forsytes, a bit like the Corleones- only more ethical.....
That generation- born around the end of the 19th century- was the last. Their children and children's children dropped away from the clan and the faith. In my memory- from the 1950s- the senior Allens are dressed in Edwardian gear- but I don't suppose that can have been the case and the memory- like most memories- must be false....
The word for folk like the Allens is birthright Quakers- though it's now disapproved of for its overtones of exclusivity and hierarchy. Our Meeting has one or two birthrighters, but most of us came into into the Society by other routes- many rather late in life. Like most churches (though it isn't a church in the steeple house sense of the word) the Society is gradually deliquescing- mote by mote, flake by flake- and is happy to recruit any random character who happens to drop by.....
