What are Elders and Overseers?

Across BYM, the responsibilities of elders and overseers have been seen as separate roles. In North Scotland Area Meeting, for so many years that I can’t remember why, the roles have been combined. I hope this has generally created an enhanced sense of belonging, sharing, community and equality.

In 1653, William Dewsbury proposed that each meeting should appoint one or two  of ‘… those most grown in The Power and the Life in the pure discerning of the Truth …’, to take responsibility for the spiritual welfare of the meeting and its members so that they ‘… may be brought closer to God …’. Their particular care remains the right holding of our meetings. We see this at the beginning of Advices and Queries where at the gathering of elders at Balby, in1656, the appeal is not on the authority of the elders as if issuing instructions, but from the light in them to the light in all Friends.

Unfortunately, in the early 18th century, Elders tended to become somewhat conservative and repressive, enforcing compliance with the disciplines endorsed by the Yearly Meeting and recorded in something called the Book of Public Extracts (including plain speech, plain dress and marrying out of the society). From the end of the century the more outward aspects of pastoral care were assigned to overseers who still have the task of ‘… building a community in which all members find acceptance, loving care and opportunities for service …’.

Elders & Overseers should only be appointed for a maximum of 2 triennia, i.e. 6 years. The difficulty of finding Friends to serve in these roles as so many of us grow older and become frail has become such a challenge that many Area Meetings are taking a new look at eldership and oversight, and many creative ways of carrying out their functions are being developed. Many Friends would also like to change the terminology especially that of ‘overseer’ with its negative connotations of the term throughout history.

So what do we do as E/Os as we try to build a community that will encourage and nurture friendship and mutual care, and as Zelie Gross puts it, to ‘… provide leadership that ensures that what Friends practice is Quaker and not something else …’? In no particular order: a great deal of non judgmental listening, welcoming and helping people to learn about and experience Quaker faith and practice, its history, language and structures; ensuring that the meeting is in right ordering and gently stepping in if someone ministers inappropriately or in a disruptive way; being aware of financial needs and knowing where to seek funding and grants for those who might need them; helping to grow the Children’s meeting and support families and relationships; encouraging attenders into membership; knowing when you need to ask for outside help; nurturing gifts; finding the best way to keep people informed; making sure that business meetings are conducted in right ordering, etc.

Yes, it’s a long list and that not the end of it. I haven’t written it down to put everybody off taking on these roles but to show that in fact we are all capable of fulfilling them if we share them, and I am more and more coming to the conclusion that this is the way forward.

References:

Advices and Queries 

Quaker Faith and Practice 

“With A Tender Hand” Zelie Gross

Eldership and Oversight series of handbooks

Oriole Hall, Inverness Local Meeting