The Swedenborg Society is governed by a Council of 15 elected Members, including a President, a Treasurer, a Chairperson and two Vice Presidents. The governing Council meets once a month and is advised by a wide range of Committees. New candidates for election are proposed and voted in at the Annual General Meeting. The Society aims to be open and transparent in its elections. Full details of candidates for election to Council are published in the Annual Report. New members of the Council members are briefed on their duties as trustees. The governance of The Swedenborg Society is set out in its Articles of Association, a copy of which can be obtained from the Secretary.
OFFICERS AND COUNCIL MEMBERS 2008/2009
PRESIDENT:
Lars Bergquist
VICE-PRESIDENTS:
John Elliott; David Lorimer
TREASURER:
Alec Morley
CHAIRMAN:
Dr David Lister
THE COUNCIL (The President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Chairman and):
John Cunningham
Revd F C Elphick
Michael Hiller
P L Johnson
Malcolm Leder
Howard Turner
Norman Turner
Madeline Waters
OFFICERS AND COUNCIL MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES
President: Lars Bergquist
Lars Bergquist is a writer and former diplomat. His diplomatic postings include Paris, Moscow, Warsaw, London, Peking and Rome (the Holy See). He studied Law at Lund University, Sweden, and Yale University, USA. He has a Masters Degree in Law and a Ph.D. h.c. From 1993-7 he was President of the National Council for Culture, Sweden, and in 2003 he was Secretary General of the Swedish 700 year Jubilee of Saint Birgit. He is a leading international scholar on Swedenborg and is the author of numerous studies and books including Swedenborg’s Secret (2005) the first comprehensive biography of Swedenborg in 50 years and The Dream Diary (2001). He has also published novels and diaries in Sweden and has also translated Chinese, Italian and French poetry and prose into Swedish.
Vice President: David Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA
David Lorimer is a writer, lecturer and editor who is programme director of the Scientific and Medical Network. Originally a teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College, he is the author and editor of twelve books, most recently Thinking beyond the Brain and Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality. He is Vice-President of the Horizon Foundation (The International Association for Near-Death Studies UK). He is Executive Vice-President of Wrekin Trust, a charity concerned with adult education. He has translated and edited books about the Bulgarian sage Peter Deunov. He is also a member of the International Futures Forum and editor of its digest, Omnipedia—Thinking for Tomorrow. His book on the ideas and work of the Prince of Wales— Radical Prince—was published in 2003 and the abridged paperback came out in October 2004. The book has been translated into Dutch, Spanish and French. He is the originator of the Learning for Life Values Poster Programme, which this year involved 15,000 young people from more than 100 schools. See www.learningforlife.org.uk
Vice President: John Elliott
John Elliot has served the Swedenborg Society since 1955, when he joined the Advisory and Revisions Board as editor and translator of Swedenborg's religious works. He edited volumes 5-8 of the third Latin edition of Arcana Coelestia, before going on to translate all eight Latin volumes (twelve in English translation) of that magnum opus. After the publication in 1999 of the final volume of this translation John was honoured for his work by the King of Sweden, who made him a member of the Royal Order of the Polar Star. Since then he has transcribed and edited Swedenborg's own indexes of Arcana Coelestia, and he has also edited the five small Latin works that were published by Swedenborg in 1758. During the three years 2006-9 he was the President of the Swedenborg Society. John Elliott has been an ordained minister of the General Conference of the New Church (Swedenborgian) for 56 years, serving as the pastor of congregations in Barnsley, Southend-on-Sea, Snodland, New Barnet, and Kensington. Being a graduate of the University of London in Medieval and Modern History John has for more than 40 years served as a supervisor or invigilator-in-charge of examinations. John recently completed a new revision of the latin edition of Heaven and Hell, to be launched in June; and he is consultant translator and editor for a fresh translation of Heaven and Hell by Ken Ryder, which will be published by the Swedenborg Society this year.