wfn.org | Newsline: Brethren Digital Archives project adopts a mission statement

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl Brumbau gh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

BRETHREN DIGITAL ARCHIVES PROJECT ADOPTS A MISSION STATEMENT

(Aug. 3, 2009) Elgin, IL -- At a meeting on June 3, the Brethren Digital Ar chives project adopted the following mission statement: "To digitize with m aximum searchability Brethren periodicals produced from the beginning of pu blication to the year 2000."

The word "Brethren" in the statement refers to bodies that trace their orig in to the baptism near Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708. The group heading up  the project plans to produce a digital archives according to nationally rec ognized standards that can be made available to researchers through the var ious participating Brethren bodies.

Brethren periodicals provide a great deal of historical data and theologica l information about the Brethren. Some Brethren periodicals have been trans ferred to microfilm for preservation, but microfilm is not searchable on a  computer. Included in their pages are Bible study articles, theological deb ate, accounts of missionaries, reports on annual meetings, family history i nformation, and some photographs.

The ultimate goal of the Brethren Digital Archives project is to digitize B rethren periodicals starting with "The Monthly Gospel-Visiter" begun by Hen ry Kurtz in 1851, and concluding with all Brethren periodicals being publis hed at the end of the 20th century. The first phase of the project would in clude periodicals published before the divisions that took place between Br ethren groups in the early 1880s.

The June 3 meeting was hosted by the Brethren Historical Library and Archiv es at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill. Three earli er meetings were hosted by the Brethren Heritage Center in Brookville, Ohio . The next meeting is scheduled at the Young Center at Elizabethtown (Pa.)  College. The meetings are historic in that for the first time they include  archivists, librarians, and historians from many Brethren bodies.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continu ing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in  community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith t raditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated it s 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 125,000 members across the Unit ed States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria,  Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

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>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org