Living with Conflict by Robson Susan;

Author:Robson, Susan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Leadership

When I attended the Mennonite multidenominational workshop on conflict in congregations,[26] with people from many other church groups, there was one noticeable difference between us. Intractable conflict was well known in most congregations, but when asked to devise a plan for handling it, many of the small groups sooner or later came up with the following suggestion: “ask the church leader to sort it out.” This was often accompanied by a laugh or a wry shrug, especially from those who self-identified as church leaders. But as a Quaker, I felt that such a solution was not open to me. There are none who self-identify as leaders among Quakers, and woe betide them if they do.[27] From my interview data, I had gained an impression of constrained and beleaguered Clerks and uncertain and unassertive elders, the most obvious people to be seen as leaders or carrying responsibility.

The Quaker emphasis on equality now results in a rejection of the idea of leadership.[28] I remember ministry in worship from Eveline Cadbury in the 1970s, which expressed the Quaker position. She had been working with Quakers in South Africa under the apartheid regime. When she was picked up by the security police and questioned insistently about the leadership among Quakers, none of her answers satisfied her inquisitors until she found herself driven to say, “We have no leader; our only leader is Jesus Christ.” In a later context—a small provincial meeting that had struggled to survive—she herself could have been construed as a leader of that group. Her quietly faithful attendance there and willing service over many years had brought her much respect and “weighty Friend” status[29] but no visible distinction, label, or separation.

Dandelion (1996) came to the conclusion that the idea of a leaderless group was Quaker mythology rather than empirical reality. He found that explicit leadership was shaped by sanctioned and time-limited management roles, which were perceived in terms of responsibility, not influence, and exercised as secular authority. By “secular authority,” I think he means that a “servant of the meeting” is governed by the specific demands of the role and cannot be open to the leadings of the spirit—“their contributions are distinct from ministry.” A Clerk should indeed be careful to appear impartial on issues before the meeting. One interviewee was highly relieved that for the first time in years, she was not serving as a Clerk and could therefore express an opinion in casual conversation and business meeting. But Quaker Faith and Practice 3.12 makes it clear that it is not a secular experience to Clerk a meeting. “If the clerk’s service is under concern in the certainty of God’s presence and help in the meeting, then strength beyond her or his normal powers will be given.”

If there are no recognized or designated leaders or if the word leadership is not used, that does not mean that it is not exercised. Even if Clerks, trustees, and employees work within constraints of their roles, they may nevertheless exercise leadership. But the

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