Clearness Committee

From Parker Palmer (Courage and Renewal)...

I want to describe a method invented by the Quakers, a method that protects individual identity and integrity while drawing on the wisdom of other people. It is called a "Clearness Committee." If that name sounds like it is from the sixties, it is—the 1660's! From their beginnings over three hundred years ago, Quakers needed a way to draw on both inner and communal resources to deal with personal problems because they had no clerical leaders to "solve" their problems for them. The Clearness Committee is testimony to the fact that there are no external authorities on life's deepest issues, not clergy or therapists or scholars; there is only the authority that lies within each of us waiting to be heard.

I'm doing a little reading about this process today, as I am participating in a clearness committee tomorrow. I was involved in one earlier in my life, at the NE Courage to Teach program, but this one holds more value for me, and is truly a Quaker process.

I reflect on how we so often need need a special process to remind us to get out of our own way, get out of everyone else's way, and let solutions and peace come to light. How contrary to the "debate and win" methodology I find myself in. And often, even "winning" an argument, "convincing" someone else how to "fix" a problem does not work long term.

Finding safe space to rest on a long journey!