Meeting for Sufferings: Replacing ‘overseers’

‘Pastoral Friend’ was one of the terms Friends are using to replace ‘overseer’.

At December’s Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) last week, Friends agreed to explicitly ask Area Meetings (AMs) to cease using the name ‘overseer’ and to replace it with another suitable term.

Over half of AMs had sent minutes to MfS expressing their views on the subject. The large majority said they had already adopted alternative terms. These included: ‘pastoral carer’; ‘pastoral team’; ‘pastoral Friend’ or ‘pastoral elder’; ‘link Friend’; and ‘elder with oversight’.

The discernment followed a minute sent to December 2019’s MfS from Central Yorkshire AM regarding the term. Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC) carried out a wide-ranging consultation, and minuted that ‘there is general support for a change to the term “overseer”, partly because of the historical connotations dealing with hierarchy and oppression.

‘This is the time for a change and we believe that meetings should be encouraged to use different terms as soon as possible.’

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