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.