Preparative meeting

The preparative meeting has historically been the lowest unit in the Quaker business organization. Usually, a preparative meeting consisted of one or more meetings for worship, and usually two or more preparative meetings formed a monthly meeting. Each meeting for worship was included within the verge of a preparative meeting.

Preparative meetings emerged in the United States in the 1690s. At that time, monthly meetings were multi-day events. The preparative meeting was introduced to "prepare" business to be transacted at the monthly meeting level and thus reduce the quantity of business transacted there. As with all business meetings except for select meetings, preparative meetings held separate men's and women's business meetings. Among the earliest preparative meetings in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting were Chester and Middletown (today's Delaware County), both established in Twelfth Month 1698 (according to the Guide to the Records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, pp. 43, 130). The first preparative meeting was established in North Carolina at Core Sound in 1736. (Seth Hinshaw, "Friends Culture in Colonial North Carolina," printed in The Southern Friend, Spring 2000, p. 32).

Existing minutes of preparative meetings are generally less formal than the monthly meeting minutes. Some preparative meetings appointed representatives to the monthly meeting. In most localities, the preparative meeting historically held the title to the meeting house grounds. The initial stages of disownment took place at preparative meetings. Preparative meetings did not play an official role in matters relating to membership or marriages.

In the early 20th century, most preparative meetings in the U.S. were laid down. A new understanding emerged that each particular meeting should hold its own monthly meeting as a matter of equality. The earlier sense of a wider discernment for business matters was the victim of this adjustment. Those preparative meetings surviving this "equality" movement also were held in joint session, meaning that men and women sat together for business. Preparative meetings remain common in the UK, however.

Few historic preparative meetings survived the first half of the 20th century. Penn Hill and Eastland Preparative Meetings in Baltimore Yearly Meeting continue to comprise Little Britain Monthly Meeting, following the historic model. In most cases, however, current "preparative meetings" are in preparation for monthly meeting status. They are sometimes called "preparatory meetings."

Related pages

• Quaker business process
• Worship group
• Monthly meeting
• Seneca Valley Preparative Meeting (Baltimore YM)
• West Falmouth Preparative Meeting (Sandwich MM, New England YM)

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