parts and whole commit

 

Clerking Toward Consensus

Quakers have long been onto something:

the realization that for an organization, a society, to thrive,

the parts need to find a way to somehow commit to the whole,

and the whole to commit to the parts,

choosing to follow the majority's expressed will is a step forward,

too often, though, majority rule can be a tyranny,

as if a single dictator is just replaced by an imperious 51%,

one group in the minority, one person,

may be gifted with insight all need to hear,

minds can change, and often minds should change,

Quakers have found it far better to realize that truth is continually revealed,

and not given to us any more on easily-read stones,

believing that we should build connection between ourselves and others,

through laboring in decision-making to find a truth that works for all,

even if there has to be a sacrifice of an initial ego assertion

to get to a point closer to how others see the same problem,

yet who see a different way to understand it, to deal with it,

each of us can then work to subordinate our individual take on it all

to the will created from a disparate group, united in struggle toward truth,

all the individual points of view can find a way to be as one

with the right nurturing and effort,

emerging into a commonality that elders us into embracing difference,

the different lenses through which we can see,

that let us find a way forward, inclusive of each,

and compromising so that all can be within the one,

that Quaker truth drives their concept of "clerking" a meeting,

no votes, not even "that Friend speaks my mind,"

which to me can be just another form of voting,

but rather an acting to hold both individuality and collectivity

at the same time,

to help us then find a way forward to which all can commit,

so, through consensus, not unanimity, we can build a unity,

sometimes, long into the effort, an individual will "stand aside,"

appreciating the need to move forward but not fully onboard yet,

and sometimes a way forward just can't be found,

as we work toward consensus

we bond with others until we find a way

that allows all of us to share in whatever action we choose,

the parts then truly can make a whole.

A "clerk" can lead but does best

if they follow an emerging sense of the meeting

and help it to be seen and realized within the meeting,

then it can coalesce and find its way into the Light.

by Henry H. Walker

January 9, ‘25