"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 1660s! 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."
Parker Palmer shares more in this thoughtful piece.
