| Description | Following the 1906 Yearly Meeting which allowed Quarterly and Monthly Meetings to decide whether to lay down their meetings on ministry and oversight, or continue them as committees as a broader representative body, a Ministry and Extension Committee was appointed by Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting in 1907. Its functions were to:
- consider the religious condition of the congregations of the different meetings within the Monthly Meeting
- ensure that meetings for worship were being held according to Quaker principles, with efficient eldership, the nurturing of a varied and living ministry and the provision of spiritual and intellectual support
- arrange intervisitation of meetings, in particular small meetings in outlying areas of the Monthly Meeting
- care for the religious and spiritual instruction of children and young people attending meetings.
It also provided readers at the 30 or so Sunday Evening Meetings which had developed in connection to the Friends Adult Schools, and helped with Mission and Adult School work as the opportunity arose.
Much of the committee's work was carried out by sub-committees, which included a rota sub-committee (SF/2/1/1/4/7/2), an intervisitation sub-committee, a children's sub-committee and committees to help smaller and outlying meetings such as Dudley, Hartshill and Wolverhampton. By 1921, the committee felt that it was no longer needed as it had no clear function since its sub-committees undertook most of the necessary work, and it had not been very successful in extension work. It was decided that the meeting should be laid down but the sub-committees should continue and report to the Monthly Meeting.
For other Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting records relating to ministry and oversight, see SF/2/1/1/1/6. For ministry and oversight records in Warwickshire Middle, Warwickshire South, and Chadwick [Chadwich] Monthly Meetings, see the relevant sections of SF/2/1/5, SF/2/1/6 and SF/2/2/1. For ministry and oversight records in Local/Preparative Meetings, see the relevant meeting in SF/3. See also SF/1/3/2 and SF/1/5 for records relating to ministry and oversight in the Quarterly Meeting. |