The Fellowship
A fellow and a steward write down what the fellow has agreed to do, and rewrite it when it stops describing the truth. There are no years, no stages, and no order. There is nothing to complete, and so nothing that can be left incomplete.
The Fellowship is optional and uncommon. The great majority of people who take part in the Continuance never enter into one, and nothing in ordinary participation is withheld from those who do not. A member who keeps a rota in a local circle for thirty years and never sets foot in a House is not at an earlier stage of anything, because there are no stages to be at.
The fields are parallel and unordered, and the order they are printed in here means nothing. A fellow may hold one, several, or none for a season; may hold the same one for twenty years; may take one up and set it down twice in a year. No field requires another, and no field is entered by having held another first.
A standing agreement to read, and to talk about the reading with one other person at intervals the two of them set.
What it asksAn hour or two a month, and no examination of any kind at any point.
Setting it downSaying so to the other person, who says so to a steward if either of them remembers.
One public commitment — a clinic, a round, a delivery, a repair day — held at a stated interval for as long as it is workable.
What it asksUsually a half-day a month, occasionally more in winter.
Setting it downSaying so once. The work is carried by the house from that day; nothing is owed and nothing is noted.
Cataloguing, transcription, and repair of the house's papers, under the archivist of the house.
What it asksWhatever hours are offered. Nobody is short of work and nobody is behind.
Setting it downHanding back the box. The catalogue notes where the work stopped, not who stopped it.
Maintenance of a building or a part of one: gutters, lime, glazing, the boiler readings.
What it asksSeasonal, and heavier in the two months either side of winter.
Setting it downTelling the custodian. The rota is rewritten the same week.
Answering letters received by a house, over one's own name, within a fortnight.
What it asksAn evening a week at most houses, and less at the smaller ones.
Setting it downReturning the unanswered letters to the correspondent of the house.
Cooking, laying, and clearing for the ordinary gatherings of one house or circle.
What it asksOne evening a month, plus the shopping.
Setting it downComing off the kitchen book, which requires no reason and is done in the corridor.
A long piece of writing on a question of the fellow's own choosing, worked at without a deadline.
What it asksAs much or as little as the fellow gives it. Many are never finished and that is ordinary.
Setting it downStopping. It is lodged in the archive only if the fellow asks for it to be.
Visiting members who are ill, bereaved, or housebound, at their invitation and no one else's.
What it asksIrregular. Some months nothing; some months a good deal.
Setting it downTelling the steward, who tells nobody why.
There is no fee, no subscription, and no charge for setting it down or taking it up again.
Fellows contribute according to a schedule they set themselves with a steward, and the schedule is reviewed annually. Contribution is not a condition of participation, and no record of contribution is held in the same place as the record of participation.
No term is set. The arrangement is written down so that both people remember what was agreed, and it is rewritten whenever what was agreed has changed.
Anything taken up may be given back in one sentence, to any steward, without a reason. Nothing may be taken up under the Fellowship that a person could not hand back in that sentence; a steward who arranges otherwise is out of order.
A fellow may end the arrangement by saying so, once, to any steward. No exit conversation is held and no note of explanation is asked for.
A period of separation may be taken instead, at any length. Former fellows are described in the Record as no longer continuous; the phrase is not intended as a judgement and has been objected to internally since 1993.
Closed; entry retained— the roll entry stands after attendance ends
Once a year, and at any time either person asks for it. One hour, with a steward who is not the fellow's own. One question is asked: whether what was agreed is still workable, in the life the person actually has.. The fellow speaks first and for as long as they wish. The steward's note is written afterwards, in the fellow's presence where possible, and the fellow may read it that day and may ask for a second note to be entered beside it.
The conversation ends in one of four ways, none of them better than another:
Entered beside— the fellow's second note, where one is asked for
“If it ever becomes easier to join than to leave, the thing has failed, whatever else is true of it.”
Eleanor Vale, 1981. Read annually at the reconciliation.
The passage is not in the House Reader. It was proposed twice and refused twice, on the ground that a sentence about how easily a person may leave should not be read to them from an anthology.
Introductory conversations are arranged through a House by anyone who asks for one. A request may be made here; it is entered in the register of enquiries and read by a steward of the house named. No period of prior attendance is required, and none is counted.
Most people ask after they have been coming to an Open Table for a while, but that is a habit and not a rule. The conversation lasts an hour and is held at a house. Most people who hold it do not go on to a Fellowship, and it is not arranged on the assumption that they will.
The houses are described in the register. What becomes of a request once it is sent is set out on the correspondence page. No reply is promised, and no time is set for one.