wfn.org | Church commission on archives plans training program abroad

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 23, 1998        Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE:  A photograph is available with this story.

By Jane Dennis*

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Church's Commission on
Archives and History is spreading its wings and launching several
projects that are international in scope. 

At their Sept. 17-18 meeting, directors approved plans to provide
training in 1999 for one archives and history leader from each annual
conference in Africa. Discussions under way with church leaders in the
Philippines are expected to result in a similar training event there in
2000. Commission members also approved funds to provide archives
management training for the library staff at Africa University in Old
Mutare, Zimbabwe.

"This is the first time we've ever done anything outside the U.S.A.,"
said Charles Yrigoyen Jr., general secretary of the agency. The
Commission on Archives and History, based at Drew University in Madison,
N.J., was created in 1968.

"This is a first for us, and we're very excited about it," Yrigoyen
said. "The project was spurred by the fact that the bishops in Africa
have decided to establish a central depository for archival documents
and records at Africa University." 

Established in 1992, the United Methodist school has 784 students and is
bustling with construction. A chapel was completed earlier this year and
the construction of a library began in August. 

The university is destined to be "a center for research for all of
sub-Sahara Africa," said Bishop Emilio de Carvalho of Luanda, Angola,
president of the commission and chancellor at Africa University.

"I'm very glad the work of the commission is going beyond the borders of
the U.S.," de Carvalho added. Commission members applauded the new
global initiatives for echoing the belief of Methodism's founder, John
Wesley, that "the world is our parish."
 
In another major project, commission members approved plans to conduct a
survey of holdings in United Methodist archives. 

The survey will begin with collections within the 66 U.S. annual
conferences, said L. Dale Patterson, archivist and records
administrator. "The next step will be to survey the Central
Conferences," he said. Eventually, the project will move to recording
significant church-related historical documents and items stored at
local churches, state archives, universities, colleges and other sites.

"Nothing had been done like this on a denominational level since the
1930s and the WPA local church survey," Patterson said. "We hope to be
able to show the breadth of material in the denomination and also
encourage the conferences to preserve and be good stewards of this
important historical material."

At a banquet shared with members of the Historical Society of the United
Methodist Church, Bishop Ole E. Borgen of Lillestrom, Norway, was
presented the 1998 Distinguished Service Award. Borgen, a
fourth-generation Methodist elected to the episcopacy in 1970, was
described by Yrigoyen as "an outstanding scholar of John Wesley and
Methodist theology, as well as a first-rate historian of European and
world Methodism."

In other business, commission members:

*	agreed to ask the Special Sundays Task Force of the churchwide
General Council on Finance and Administration to move Heritage Sunday to
the first Sunday in November, also known as All Saints' Day, because its
current day in April has, during some years, fallen on the same day that
Native American Awareness Sunday is observed;

*	approved grants totaling $26,725 to 11 existing Heritage
Landmark sites;

*	learned that Heritage Sunday themes for the next four years will
be "Our Heritage in Africa," followed by themes for the Americas, Europe
and Asia/Pacific Area;

*	approved a 1999 budget of $836,361; and

*	re-elected Yrigoyen general secretary for another one-year term.

No new sites were recommended for Heritage Landmark status at the
commission's board meeting.
 
The agency's 1999 annual meeting will be held during the quadrennial
Historical Convocation of the United Methodist Church, June 25-28, at
Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. The theme of the gathering, held
in conjunction with the Historical Society, will be "Knowledge and Vital
Piety: United Methodism's Historic Involvement in Higher Education." 

It was also announced that the 1999 Distinguished Service Award will be
presented to Richard Heitzenrater. Considered by many the foremost
Wesley scholar in the world today, Heitzenrater broke the code of
Wesley's personal diary. He holds the William K. Quick Chair of
Methodist Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition at Perkins School of
Theology, Southern Methodist 
University in Dallas. 

After the commission meeting, members of the Historical Society met and
took tours of United Methodist-related Philander Smith College, Hendrix
College and Camp Aldersgate, the United Methodist Museum of Arkansas and
the Arkansas United Methodist Archives. The 100 members assembled also
honored Jean Hanson of Tacoma, Wash., as Historian of the Year. The
gathering concluded with a worship service in historic Quapaw Quarter
United Methodist Church, led by Arkansas Area Bishop Janice Riggle Huie
and with Bishop Emilio de Carvalho preaching.

# # #

Dennis is director of communications for the United Methodist Church's
Arkansas Area and editor of the Arkansas United Methodist in Little
Rock.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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