Ministry and Eldership Resource Group

Purpose

The primary work of this group is to nurture the culture and practice of recognizing and upholding ministry among Friends in New England, and of acknowledging and sustaining Friends’ tradition of supportive elders.

According to Faith and Practice, care and accountability of ministers is rooted in the local monthly meeting, with additional responsibility and support held by the Ministry & Counsel of quarterly meetings. The role of the yearly meeting, and specifically of the Ministry and Eldership Resource Group, is to support monthly meetings and quarters in these vital responsibilities.

Procedures

The tasks of this group of Friends include:

  1. Remembering that we are a faith community where all are called to participate in the universal ministry, hold the diverse expressions of the yearly meeting’s ministry in prayer, and support grounded ministry as it stirs in worshiping communities.
  2. Through example and articulation, foster a more common and dynamic understanding of ministry in Friends’ experience and tradition among Friends in New England.
  3. Through relational presence, mentoring, consultation, and sharing resources, support monthly meetings and quarters—including those holding particular responsibility for nurturing ministry—seeking to deepen their role as caregivers of the ministries in their midst. Help to move toward common understanding of the ways monthly meetings can support ministry, including those provided in NEYM Faith and Practice.
  4. Walk with Friends—especially those newer to Friends or to this shape of service—who feel a stirring toward ministry but who are in transition or without the support of a worshiping community’s connections and resources, to help establish these connections
  5. Walk with monthly meetings that are working to support a Friend who is being called into ministry.
  6. Regularly reach out to accountability/support/ministry oversight committees (through their local meetings) to enquire if there is a way they might be supported; be available to respond to requests as needed
  7. As led, and in partnership with others holding related responsibilities, offer opportunities for monthly meetings to gather and share experiences and information on upholding the gifts that Friends from their meetings carry. This may take the form of workshops or other educational explorations.
  8. With staff support, reach out to Friends with travel minutes, minutes of religious service, and recorded gifts annually, encouraging an annual report and offering opportunities for sharing their experiences with the wider community during Sessions or other New England wide gatherings.
  9. Report annually on the group’s sense of some of the growing edges of ministry within the yearly meeting.
  10. Listen for the needs of Friends serving as Elders–whether or not recognized–and provide opportunities for Friends who are called into this service to connect with each other and with the broader community.

Next Meeting

No upcoming meetings are currently listed.

Composition

Five to seven members, for a term of five years, nominated by the Nominating Committee in consultation with the clerk of Ministry & Counsel. The clerk of Ministry and Counsel, clerk of Meeting Accompaniment Group, and YM Secretary serve ex officio. As this work begins, the clerk of Ministry & Counsel may choose to clerk this group, or another clerk may be proposed by the Nominating Committee in consultation with the clerk of Ministry and Counsel and the Permanent Board.

Gifts and experience needed

Seasoned Friends with experience with ministry oversight, accountability, and support practices in a local meeting; geographic diversity in terms of quarterly meeting affiliation; capacity for deep listening; eldership; knowledge of wider conversations and practices related to ministry and eldership among Friends; understanding of the issues presented by ego, pride, and identity in covenant communities, and how they may be challenges in this service; awareness of some frequent stumbling blocks for meetings and individuals in the journey of stewarding gifts of ministry.