Summing up: Religious Archives Group Conference 2014 Tim Powell Among the pleasures of my post as Senior Adviser: Religious Archives are seeing the wealth of material held in religious archives and learning about the imaginative ways this material can be opened up and made accessible. Examples are highlighted in the annual RAG Conference and this year's meeting was no exception. The underlying theme, of course, has been universities and religious archives, yet we had a most varied group of presentations. After a welcome and introduction to Pusey House from its Principal, Father George Westhaver, Emma Walsh gave a presentation on the many hats she wears (and juggles) as Librarian at Regent’s Park College, and particularly her work heading the Baptist archives in the Angus Library and Archive. This repository was being transformed by a significant grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and it was noteworthy that while the HLF-funded project includes solid traditional archival components, the context in which these tasks are being addressed is that of opening up the archives to wider use. The project has been bringing in volunteers, engaging with schools, and widening participation generally. Emma showed how the project was allowing the resources of the Angus Library to be used as a denominational resource for the Baptist Church as well as for scholarly use and outreach. In the following talk, 'All May be Saved to the Uttermost: Methodist Archives and Universities', Philip Thornborow of the Methodist Church in Britain presented a different model of the relationship between a denomination and its archives, albeit based on a different type of church organisation. He gave a short history of the Methodist Churches’ archives and their provision, which showed how the Wesleyans in particular had from an early date given thought to the storage of their records, even if the provision made wasn't always ideal. Since the late 1970s the Methodist Church has entrusted its central archives to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, while missionary material generally goes to SOAS. Philip discussed the differences of perspective between a Church which exists for mission and a university’s focus on scholarship but also the advantages of the association to both parties. Before lunch we completed our tour of archives of nonconformity with a presentation from Isabel Rivers, David Wykes and Mark Burden on the 'The Dissenting Academies Project'. This project is a collaboration between Dr Williams Library and Queen Mary, University of London, through the Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies, to document early dissenting, or private, academies, the tutors they employed, the students they educated, and the books held in their libraries. Academic research skills and knowledge were combined with knowledge of the source material available. After lunch and the Religious Archives Group AGM, we had a series of shorter presentations. In 'The Greek MSS Cataloguing Project at Lambeth Palace Library', Clare Brown of Lambeth Palace Library described the project to compile an extremely detailed catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of the Library, that had been acquired by the Library since its foundation. Dated between the tenth and seventeenth centuries, the manuscripts include Biblical and Apocryphal texts, liturgy, theology and other works. This project again illustrated a highly successful partnership between a religious archives repository and an academic institution, this time between academics based at Royal Holloway and Lambeth Palace Library. In her talk on 'Religious Buildings and Archives: Some Collaborative Teaching Projects', Ellie Pridgeon of the University of Leicester spoke on the use of religious archives for a life-long learning teaching course on the built environment. For many students this was their first experience of archives. The combination of academic study with use of original source material represents another aspect of the relationship between universities and religious archives. Our final talk, by Barbara Vesey and Gilly King, titled 'School Spirit(uality): curating the Catholic beginnings and future legacy of the University of Roehampton’s Digby Stuart College', looked at the contribution the archives of the four distinct Colleges of the University from different traditions, Anglican and Methodist as well as Roman Catholic, have made to the life of the University, and the fruitful relationship between them. The paper illustrated another theme of the day; that the curation of archives is not simply to preserve the historical record but helps to ensure current identity is preserved and maintained. This entertaining and amusingly illustrated talk was a good way to end the proceedings. We enjoyed six fascinating talks, all of which illustrated aspects of the different relationships between the higher education sector and religious archives. We saw some of the tensions that can exist between religious archives and universities but much more of the great benefits of an association. We saw that University archives and libraries are central to preservation of religious archives in the UK, and not just the historical manuscripts but the records being produced today. Religious archives are of enormous benefit to scholarship, particularly historical and theological of course, but a relationship with the academic sector can also open up archives to a wider audience and thereby serve the life and mission of a living religious community. So where archives are held by religious institutions themselves, a partnership with a university can be crucial to unlocking them, for religious archives are often highly specialist, difficult to understand, requiring mediation and context-giving. The meeting expressed its appreciation of the speakers, and thanks were given to all those who made the event possible, particularly to Claire Childs for her hard work in organising the programme and preparing the venue. Thanks were also given to Father Westhaver and Pusey House for the hospitality they had extended us.