Organisation in Devon and Cornwall
Quakers in Devon and Cornwall
Find a meeting in Devon and Cornwall
Yearly Meeting – Area Meetings – Local Meetings:
The affairs of Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends) in Devon and Cornwall are managed by Devon Area Meeting and Cornwall Area Meeting. These Area Meetings are constituent parts of Britain Yearly Meeting, and each appoints Friends from their county to represent them on national bodies. The Area Meetings themselves, which normally meet every two months on Saturdays, can be attended by all Friends (and, with permission, Attenders) from the Local Meetings in each county. See below for more information about Area and Local Meetings.
The Area Meetings and Local Meetings in Devon and Cornwall can be found on this website by clicking on ‘Meetings’ in the menu on the left.
This page was used until December 2008 to record the work of General Meeting for Devon and Cornwall. The rich history of General Meeting, and before that Quarterly Meeting, is given below. Now, the organisation has been simplified, and General Meeting (and its committees) no longer exists. For more about the history of General Meeting and Quarterly Meeting, see ‘A brief chronological history......’ below.
Arrangements Committee for Quaker Gatherings:
Instead, the Devon and Cornwall Area Meetings each appoint their own representatives to serve on the Devon and Cornwall Arrangements Committee, which was formed in January 2009, and organises Devon and Cornwall Quaker Gatherings each year. The dates of Gatherings are shown on the Events page of the website, and detailed programmes are shown on the Members page when they are available – normally within a month of the date of the Gathering, and where possible, longer. All Friends and Attenders in the two counties are welcome at any Gathering without prior notice – just come!
In addition to organising Gatherings, the Arrangements Committee also maintains this web site, and publishes an annual List of Members and Attenders in the two counties. The List of Members - giving contact details and membersip of committees etc in the Area Meetings and Local Meetings - is compiled and distributed annually in January. It is not distributed outside Friends' circles, and Members and Attenders are only included in the printed booklet with their permission. If you are not included and wish to be added, please download a consent form here and give it to an overseer in your local meeting.
Members of the Arrangements Committee for 2009 are:
Mark Down, St Austell
Pamela Hill, Barnstaple
Bob Lovett, Torbay
Jim Putz, Exeter
Alan Ray-Jones, Tavistock (Web General Editor)
David Wheeler, Falmouth
Peta White, Come to Good
Bill Waghorn, Barnstaple (co-opted)
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Contact for Devon and Cornwall Arrangements Committee Convenor – Robert Lovett pro tem
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Digests of talks given at Devon and Cornwall General Meeting and Quaker Gatherings from February 2008 onwards can be downloaded below. These are .pdf files, and you will need Adobe Reader to read them (you may already have it).
File: Feb 2008.pdf Size: 55kb 'Civil Liberties'
File :Jun 2008.pdf Size: 37kb 'Caring for our world'
File: Oct 2008.pdf Size: 13kb 'Addiction'
File: June 2009.pdf 'Be the Change' First Gathering
More about Area Meetings. From Quaker Faith & Practice 3rd Edition, as revised 1995-2008: 4.01 (part): The area meeting is the primary meeting for church affairs in Britain Yearly Meeting. Its role is to develop and maintain a community of Friends, a family of local meetings who gather for worship and spiritual enrichment. It should provide that balance between worship, mutual support, administration, learning, deliberation and social life which can make its meetings enjoyable occasions and build up the spiritual life of its members.
Area meetings act as facilitators and co-ordinators, ensuring that their constituent local meetings have access to opportunities for fellowship, spiritual development, and spiritual and pastoral care, including the care of children and young people. They also provide mutual support through the shared testing of concerns.
Monthly meetings were an important part of the gospel order established by George Fox, which played a large part in ensuring the survival of the young Society of Friends. From 1659 onwards monthly meetings were set up, first for men only, then for women and finally joint; they combined business with social ties, caring for the poor and prisoners, education and ministry. By 1676 they were the unit of authority for membership, marriages, property, records, the recognition of ministers (until 1924) and the recognition and laying down of local meetings; most of these functions continue today. So too does their formal responsibility, completed by 1789, for the appointment of elders and overseers.
A brief chronological history of the structure of Quaker Meetings in Devon and Cornwall
(Errors and Omissions excepted –please contact alan@ray-jones.org.uk with any information)
1668-1870
All Devon Meetings came under Devonshire Quarterly Meeting.
All Cornwall Meetings came under Cornwall Quarterly Meeting.
1783
Penzance Monthly Meeting and Falmouth Monthly Meeting (1668-1783) joined to form West Cornwall Monthly Meeting (1783-1903)
1785
East Devon MM consisted of Topsham, Exeter, Cullompton and Spiceland. West Devon MM consisted of Kingsbridge, Plymouth, Modbury and Tavistock.
1870-1966
Devon and Cornwall Quarterly Meeting was formed in 1870 and East Devon MM and West Devon MM became part of it, as did West Cornwall MM.
1900-1940
From 1 January 1904 West and East Cornwall MMs united to form Cornwall MM within
1940-1960
There was a steady growth of new Meetings.
1967-2007
From 1 January 1967 Devon and Cornwall Quarterly Meeting became Devon and Cornwall General Meeting. Also, Meetings called Particular and Allowed were styled Recognized Meetings. By 2007 East Devon Monthly Meeting had eight constituent meetings and West Devon MM had four.
1995
From 1 May 1995 Meetings that conducted regular meetings for church affairs (business meetings) were restyled Preparative Meetings. Those that only met once a month were Recognised Meetings and those not fully Recognised were styled Notified Meetings.
2007 -
In 2007 Monthly Meetings were restyled Area Meetings or Area Quaker Meetings, and their constituent Meetings became Local Meetings, whatever their arrangements for business. Area Meetings took over from General Meetings' function as the accounting units of the church, responsible to Meeting for Sufferings and the Charity Commission (Britain Yearly Meeting had previously been an umbrella charity for all Quaker meetings) having been overtaken by Area Meetings, General Meetings were given the option of continuing under a name agreed by their Area Meetings, or ceasing to meet.
2008
2009 From 1 January 2008, East and West Devon united to form Devon Area Meeting.
From 1 January 2009, Devon and Cornwall Area Meetings established an Arrangements Committee formed from representatives of the two Area Meetings, tasked with arranging Devon and Cornwall Gatherings in place of the former General Meetings, to consider subjects of common interest. See above for more about Arrangements Committee.
Notes
1. Up to 1903 there were separate business meetings for women and men.
2. The Minutes and other records of Cornwall QM from 1668-1870 are held at the Cornwall County Record Office Truro, and those of Devonshire QM from 1668-1890 are at the Devon Record Office, Plymouth.
3. For more detail and the history of individual local meetings, click here.
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