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Recorded Minister

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Quaker acknowledged to have a gift of spoken ministry

A Recorded Minister was originally a male or female Quaker (that is, a member of the Religious Society of Friends), who was acknowledged to have a gift of spoken ministry.

The practice of recording in a Monthly Meeting Minute the acknowledgment that a Friend had a gift of spoken ministry began in the 1730s in London Yearly Meeting, according to Milligan's Biographical dictionary of British Quakers in commerce and industry. The acknowledgment did not involve anything like ordination or any payment, in view of early Friends' testimony against "Hireling Priests". Acknowledgment did permit the Recorded Minister to attend at Yearly Meeting and Meeting for Sufferings.

In London Yearly Meeting the practice of recording Ministers was discontinued in 1924.

While many Yearly Meetings have discontinued the practice of recording ministers, it is maintained by many others. Today, Friends are recorded as ministers as an acknowledgment of a variety of ministries, including teaching, chaplaincy, and evangelical and pastoral ministry.

See also

References

  1. ^ Milligan's Biographical dictionary of British Quakers in commerce and industry p. 582 (Glossary)
  2. John Punshon says the practice of recording Ministers arose from a dispute about membership of Second Day Morning Meeting in 1772 - Punshon, John Portrait in Grey: a short history of the Quakers 2nd edn, London, Quaker Books (2006) ISBN 0-85245-399-X - pp. 159-162.
  3. A 17th-century tract against "Hireling Priests".
  4. Punshon, John Portrait in Grey: a short history of the Quakers 2nd edn, London, Quaker Books (2006) ISBN 0-85245-399-X - pp. 159-162. Punshon discusses the cessation of the practice in LYM on page 276. He is a Recorded Minister in Indiana Yearly Meeting
  5. Recording Gifts In Ministry: pamphlet produced in 1992 by New York Yearly Meeting, as guidance for their constituent Meetings.
  6. For Chuck Fager's views on the proposal to re-establish the practice of recording, see The Trouble with 'Ministers (Undated but after Spring 2000). Archived 2013-10-19 at the Wayback Machine
  7. For the procedure for recording Ministers amongst Evangelical Friends Church South West, see Chapter 7 of the EFCSW Faith and Practice (online)
  8. Ohio Yearly Meeting Book of Discipline (2001): sections on recognizing and recording Gospel Ministers
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