Quaker Heritage Press > Online Texts > The Old Discipline > Testimonies of Denial and Acknowledgments
When a disowned person removes out of the verge of the meeting which disowned him or her, and applies thereto for reinstatement, acknowledging their error, and if by reason of the distance the applicant cannot be conveniently treated with in person, the said meeting may correspond with the monthly meeting within the compass of which he or she resides, and inquire into their fitness for membership, and if satisfaction on that head is received, a certificate for such person, directed to the said monthly meeting, may be forthwith sent, acknowledging him or her as a member of our society. -- 1806.
As it may not always be necessary that papers of acknowledgment should contain a recital of the occasion of disownment as specified in the testimonies of denial, it is agreed that monthly meetings be left to their discretion in this respect; and that neither testimonies of denial nor acknowledgments be read at the close of our public meetings for worship. In all cases where a meeting apprehends itself under a necessity to disown a member, let such member, if the occasion and his or her situation will admit of it, be previously informed thereof: And when the judgment of the meeting is issued, let a copy thereof be delivered to the party testified against, with notification of his or her right of appeal. -- 1806.