Recorded Minister

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.[1][2] The acknowledgment did not involve anything like ordination or any payment, in view of early Friends' testimony against "Hireling Priests".[3] 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.[1][4]

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.[5][6][7][8]

  1. ^ a b 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