Diane Wells
“Voices from the archives do not always say what we expect.”
Jane Samson, PhD, Associate Professor of History, University of Alberta
The above quotation is from a presentation on missionary archives I attended at this year’s annual meeting of the American Historical Association. Held in Seattle in mid-January, the over-all theme for the meeting was “Archives and Artifacts,” a theme that attracted many local archivists to the program
The link between archivists and historians is an obvious one and it was gratifying to see our work acknowledged in this way. What was even more gratifying for me as an archivist of a religious collection was to see an apparent increased use of religious archives by secular as well as church historians. This leads me to believe that recognition of the breadth and depth of our collections – particularly with relation to social, intellectual, cultural and even scientific history – by the historical community at large is taking place.
The session on missionary archives was particularly telling in this respect. The presenters, who were not church or religious historians per se, had used archival materials pertaining to various missionary enterprises to research everything from gender issues to the history of anthropology in the Pacific. These historians recognized that a ”full range of voices” exist within the collections of religious institutions and that stereotypes of what a religious archive might contain are just that – stereotypes. Consequently, “voices from the archives do not always say what we expect.”
The possibilities for this type of academic research in religious archives are many and should be encouraged for not only does it add to the general body of historical knowledge but it raises the profile of our institutions, our collections and our profession.
Lighting the Path Heritage Exhibit: Celebrating 75 Years of Youth Ministry
Eric Waggoner, Reporter
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The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center and archives opened the new Lighting the Path heritage exhibit on October 28, 2004, in Cleveland, Tennessee. It celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Church of God’s first general youth program – the Young People’s Endeavor. On display are past issues of The Lighted Pathway a monthly youth magazine, artifacts, memorabilia, letters, photographs, and other historical documents.
A special section honors Dr. Ray H. Hughes Sr., who as a young minister preached at a Hollywood Bowl youth rally in 1948. He became the third director of the Church of God’s National Youth Department. Since then, he has faithfully served in many capacities including general overseer, president of Lee University, president of the Church of God Theological Seminary, and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He donated his papers, documents, and other materials to the Dixon Research Center during the summer of 2004.
Before the General Assembly adopted the Young People’s Endeavor in 1929, the Church of God had already demonstrated a commitment to children and youth through Sunday school, Bible Training School and ministry to needy children. The first General Assembly was held in 1906 and urged adoption of Sunday schools to benefit children and teens. The Church of God Bible Training School, now Lee University, was established in 1918, along with the Church of God Orphanage in 1920.
“The year 1929 was a decisive moment for Church of God youth,” stated Dr. David Roebuck, director of the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center. “Several local and state youth organizations inspired the General Assembly to implement a national program for its young people.” Alda B. Harrison and other key leaders particularly encouraged the adoption and promotion of YPE. The same year Mrs. Harrison established The Lighted Pathway as a monthly magazine for youth, which later was adopted by the general church and published until 1991. Since 1929, the Church of God has developed many other youth ministries including youth camps, short-term mission trips, Youth World Evangelism Action, and Teen Talent. The International Department of Youth and Christian Education was founded in 1948.
Lighting the Path heritage exhibit is sponsored by the Church of God Historical Commission and the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center. The exhibit is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during normal hours. It will remain on display at the Pentecostal Resource Center at Lee University until June 2006.
For more information, contact: Dixon Pentecostal Research Center, 423-614-8576 or e-mail at dixon_research@leeuniversity.edu.
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Alda B. Harrison sitting at The Lighted
Pathway desk.
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Ray H. Hughes Sr. served as President of the National Association of
Evangelicals (NAE) from 1986-1988; during his tenure, President Ronald
Regan addressed the NAE.
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Recording Indiana's Evangelical United Brethren Heritage
Wesley W. Wilson
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The Center for Evangelical United Brethren Heritage, located at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH., organized a project to encourage United Methodist conferences to conduct oral history interviews in their states. Thirty-seven years after the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) and the Methodist churches to form today’s United Methodist Church (UMC), there are many fewer men and women originally connected with the EUB church. The purpose of the project was to record, capture and preserve the memories of ordinary Evangelical United Brethren ministers and laity regarding what the EUB church meant to them and how it affected their lives. A similar project was undertaken 20 years earlier to record the memories of leaders of the EUB church; this project focuses on the “grass-roots voices.”
In Indiana, the South Indiana Conference Commission on Archives and History (UMC) formed a committee to begin such an oral history project. The committee selected a coordinator, Bill Clayton, who identified people to interview, recruited interviewers and arranged for workshops to be held to train the interviewers. Wes Wilson of the Archives of DePauw University and Indiana United Methodism trained the interviewers in oral history recording techniques in two workshops last winter.
The Archives received 14 audiocassette recordings of interviews conducted over the spring and summer of 2004. Copies of the tapes were made and sent to the United Brethren Heritage Center. Now the Archives staff is in the midst of preparing typed transcripts of the recordings it received for the project. Copies of the transcripts will be available for research use both at the Archives and the Heritage Center. A valuable part of the United Methodist Church’s EUB heritage will be preserved for the historians of today and tomorrow.
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Kathryn Koenig, Project interviewee
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New England Archivists of Religious Institutions
Mary Rita Grady, CSJ
The Spring Meeting of the New England Archivists of Religious Institutions (NEARI) will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2005 at Rivier College, Nashua, New Hampshire. The program will include a panel on “Religious Archives: A Unique Resource” and a session
on “Preservation.” For more information contact: NEARI, Boston CSJ Archives, 637 Cambridge Street, Brighton, MA 02135-2801; archives@csjboston.org
[Mary Rita Grady is Associate Professor of Philosophy Emerita, Regis College, Weston, MA 02453-1571]
Archivists of Religious Collections Section Officers
| Chair: Diane Wells, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, (Wash.) |
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Loretta Zwolak Greene, Sisters
of Providence Archives
| Secretary: Gwynedd Cannan, Trinity Church, New York |
| Representatives-at-Large: Joan S. Clemens, Pitts Theology Library, Emory University; Wesley W. Wilson, Archives of DePauw University and Indiana United Methodism |
| Past Chair/Nominating Committee: Dale Patterson, General Commission on Archives and History, United Methodist Church |
| Newsletter Editor: Wesley W. Wilson |
| Web Coordinator: Mark J. Duffy, The Archives of the Episcopal Church USA |
Editor's Notes
The Archival Spirit is published three times a year by the Archivists of Religious Collections Section of the Society of American Archivists. Feature pieces as well as announcements of acquisitions and projects are welcome. Send submissions to: Wesley W. Wilson at wwwilson@depauw.edu.
For membership information, contact: Society of American Archivists, 527 S. Wells, 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60607, 312-922-0140, fax 312-347-1452, info@archivists.org
[End of document. HTML document version prepared February 9, 2005.]
