By Ron (reprinted from January 1999 newsletter)
A Quaker clearness committee is a unique method of seeking discernment. The name expresses its purpose. Clearness committees help Friends find clarity. Friend Parker Palmer writes, “Behind the clearness committee is a simple but crucial conviction: each of us has an inner teacher, a voice of truth, that offers the guidance and power we need to deal with the problem.”
Memphis Friends Meeting uses this process for Friends who want worshipful support for membership or marriage. We also use them as a method of counsel when a Friend needs help finding their way or making an important life decision.
Clearness committees are often focused on two obvious questions and one supportive one: “Why do you want to do this?” “Is the way clear to take this action?” and “What experiences have led you to this point?” We ask questions only to listen more deeply. Our task is not to advise or judge; it is to help the focus person seek clearness. When the proposed action is truly clear, the correct action will emerge.
Most of us know that friends can be an essential support during difficult times, but we may be wary of their involvement becoming too emotional, judgmental, or advisory. Thus, as Palmer writes, “we too often privatize these vital questions in our lives. At the very moment we need help, we find ourselves cut off . . . from the resources of community.” A clearness committee presents an alternative.
The formal structure consists of three parts. First, Ministry & Nurture is asked to appoint the committee. Next, the focus person might write a description of the issue
including background, plans and ideas. Finally, the meeting is held, governed by one demanding rule: members are forbidden to speak to the focus person in any way except to ask honest, open questions – questions with no pre-conceived answer. The closer we come to this ideal, the deeper and more supportive the process will be.
Palmer writes, “The clearness committee is not a cure-all; it is a powerful way to rally the strength of community around a struggling soul, to draw deeply from the wisdom within all of us. It teaches us to abandon the pretense that we know what is best for another person and instead to ask those honest and open questions that can help them find their own answers. It teaches us to give up the arrogant assumption that we are obliged to ‘save’ each other and learn, through simple listening, to create the conditions that allow a person to find wholeness within.”