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2000-108

Episcopal Archives launches plans for a new research center

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) The Archives of the Episcopal Church are looking 
for a new home. After more than 40 years on the campus  of 
the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in 
Austin, Texas, the large (and growing) collections of group 
histories, meeting records, letters, photographs and other 
memorabilia of the life of the Episcopal Church must move 
out of their present quarters to make way for the 
seminary's growth. The seminary has set a 2005 deadline for 
the archives' departure.

     To the archives' director, Mark Duffy, this signals a 
great opportunity.

     "We were already planning to go to General Convention 
to ask that a committee look at the options available for a 
new space," he said. While the seminary board's decision 
last February came as "a bit of a surprise," he added, it 
was understandable. By 2005 the seminary's library will 
have outgrown its building--even after the archives leave 
the library floor they now occupy.

     "The seminary was simply being honest with us," Duffy 
said.

     Five years is a relatively short time to find a new 
location, draw up plans and move the archives, but the need 
has been looming for years, he said. The material in the 
collection now fills not only the seminary space but also 
two warehouse storage units as well as some space in the 
Episcopal Church Center in New York City.

     "Neither the warehouse nor the church center has the 
kind of temperature and humidity controls or the security 
that  are needed for good document storage," said Duffy, 
adding that space is now at such a premium that he and his 
staff are being forced to make tough decisions on what gets 
sent to outside storage.

     The collection is one that should be treated with 
respect, he said.

Conservator named in 1835

     The Episcopal Church was among the first of the 
mainline Protestant churches to appoint a conservator, 
Francis Lister Hawks, to pull together the young church's 
scattered historical artifacts. Hawks went to work soon 
after his job was created in 1835, and his collection, 
including papers dating back to 1679, is at the heart of 
the church's archives today.

     Through the holdings a reader can trace the church's 
emerging autonomy, search for identity, and its long record 
of global mission.

     Duffy pointed out that today 40 percent of the 
visitors who come to do research in the archives are from 
countries outside the U.S. "They are people who come to 
Austin to study their own history," he said. "It 
illustrates that we really are part of a larger communion."

     Because of missionaries' eagerness to record the 
cultures of the people to whom they had been sent, the 
archives' photograph collection is one of the finest in the 
country. A particular area of interest, Duffy said, is the 
pictures of native peoples of Alaska.

     "People keep asking when we will digitize those so 
they can be available by computer," Duffy said. "That kind 
of accessibility is exactly what we're working toward."

     Recent acquisitions included the personal papers of 
Bishop John Maury Allin and Bishop John Shelby Spong, as 
well as additional records of the administration of 
Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning. The archives also 
acquired the records of  the Episcopal Society for Racial 
and Cultural Unity (ESCRU), an organization that forcefully 
confronted segregation in the church; the records of 
Integrity, the gay and lesbian advocacy group, and of the 
North Conway Institute, an interfaith network of education 
and public policy advocacy on the issues of substance abuse 
and alcoholism.  	

Research needs space

     At this point, however, the Episcopal Church, once 
nearly alone in launching an effort to preserve church 
history, stands alone again as the only major faith group 
without a building dedicated to housing its archival 
resources, Duffy said. "It doesn't make sense for us to be 
a completely stand-alone operation," he said. "We're 
looking for space connected with a seminary, a college or a 
cultural institution."

     A new 35,000-square-foot facility, he points out, 
would accommodate all the archives, with room for digital 
conversion of documents and photos so that they are 
accessible from anywhere. The space would also allow the 
archives staff to organize educational programs focusing on 
Anglican and Episcopal Church history.

     "Even though we don't have a separate building, we are 
probably further along than many other churches in making 
the archives accessible," Duffy said, "but I think we will 
make real progress during the next triennium."

     The archives' board will ask General Convention to 
support the drive toward improving its electronic 
information resources and preservation effort.

     An important step, Duffy said, will be taken during 
June, when the archives go online to allow anyone to search 
the records for resolutions from previous general 
conventions.

     A third resolution will ask that the archives 
officially become "a central registry and place of deposit 
for the national church's published and printed resources." 
The resolution also urges dioceses to deposit copies of 
their periodicals and other publications. 

     Duffy noted that a larger space would allow the 
archives to work more with dioceses and parishes to 
document and preserve the church's local stories.

     "It's important to address this," Duffy said of the 
archives' future. "So much of our faith is built on text, 
on narrative, telling us where we've been. This isn't just 
an old, past thing--it's a way of telling new stories."

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Episcopal 
Church's Office of News and Information.