Proclaiming the Good News: church archives, church history and the mission of the Church
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/article37759
- Author
- Virr, Richard Edmund, 1942-
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society
- Date
- 1994 April
- Author
- Virr, Richard Edmund, 1942-
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Date
- 1994 April
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 1
- Page
- [58]-70
- Notes
- "I had intended to explore three themes: (1) How church archives and church history can help in understanding where the church is today; (2) How church archives and church history can help in articulating the mission of the church; and finally, (3) How church archives and church history can be a type of proclamation of the Good News. However, I soon realized that before I could so so it was necessary to treat in some detail both church archives and church history, to consider something of their history in the Canadian church. Therefore, while I will have something to say about the three themes I have just outlined, much of this paper is purely historical. I should like to begin then with a consideration of the development of church archives in the Anglican Church of Canada. Much of what I have to say concerns the Diocese of Montreal which I take as in many ways typical of archives in the Canadian Church". -- p. 59. "[B]oth in the diocese of Montreal and across the Canadian Church, there have been a number of positive developments as far as archives are concerned in the past decade or so. There are more archives and more active archives than ever before, and this is a good thing. And while the staff of church archives is still primarily composed of volunteers, it has been possible to provide archives training for them. .... Another encouraging development of the last decade is the attempt to make church records more easily available to researchers. The Anglican Church ... has undertaken the publication of a series of guides to the holdings of the various diocesan archives. .... These developments I believe mark an important change for church archives. we are clearly moving away from the historical society model that marked our beginning and towards a more professional approach to and understanding of church archives. But this change emphasize problems that are endemic to church archives and to which I would now like to turn my attention. The first of these can be stated simply: while church archives and archivists are becoming increasingly professional, our principal users are non-professionals". -- p. 63-64. "A second and more serious problem is the marginal position of archives in the church. .... our records are important. They are important for legal reasons .... the requirement to record births, marriages, and deaths dates as far back as the Instructions of Thomas Cromwell of 1538 .... Our records are important also for administrative purposes". -- p. 64. "Our records are important for historical reasons". --p. 65. "Finally, our records are important for theological reasons, and the archives can contribute to the life and mission of the church". -- p. 65. "The relationship between church archives and church history is a very close one; the church archivist is the keeper of the record and the church historian is the interpreter of the record". -- p. 65. "Church archivists and church historians can contribute to this witness by preserving and explicating the history of the church, the history of the church in one's own particular locality. There are many less than creditable events and actions to be recorded in the history of the church, and these must be faced honestly and openly. But church archivists and church historians will have no qualms about facing these because we will be able to provide the context, the social, economic, and political context, as well as the religious one". -- p. 69.
- Subjects
- Church archives - Canada
- Church archives - Anglican Church of Canada
- Anglican Church of Canada - Archives - History
- Anglican Church of Canada. General Synod. Archives - History
- Church history - Canada
- Church history - Sources
- Anglican Church of Canada - Records - Management
- Location
- General Synod Archives