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These records document the work of the General Field Services unit of the Executive Council’s Department of Christian Education, which provided consulting services to Episcopal dioceses, mission districts, and other Church organizations on educational issues. They include correspondence, printed materials, strategic planning documents, and forms and reports detailing field work done by departmental officers.

The complex, shifting, and sometimes obscure institutional reorganizations of Executive Council in the late 1960s and 1970s are partially reflected in this collection.

This collection comprises a mixed series of Administrative Records and Subject Files that includes correspondence, reports, and printed material that appear to have been gathered selectively by an unknown office within the Education for Mission and Ministry cluster.

Prominent topics include the Diocese of Puerto Rico, Clergy Studies, and the National Institute for Lay Training (NILT). The NILT became the legal successor to the Church Army in 1975, promoting the training of laity for service to the Church community through the placement of volunteers in parish programs and seminaries. Of particular interest are General Convention committee records and a 1973 study by the Office of Development, “What You Said,” concerning diocesan needs and priorities.

This collection provides a high level overview of the work of the Social Welfare Officer, Woodrow W. Carter, Sr., with particular emphasis on his work to coordinate interest across the Church in addressing salient and time-sensitive social concerns. The records bridge the later years of the Christian Social Relations Department but speak mostly to the experimental and investigative strategy of the national church bureaucracy in the 1970s. By that decade, the remnant departmental boundaries of the National Council's Domestic Mission portfolio had given way to amorphous structures that allowed executive officials more flexibility in responding to the perceived needs of the day. The central mission personnel became known as the mission “Program staff” that carried out the work of Executive Council under the direction of the Presiding Bishop. The records serve to demonstrate the last years in which the national Church’s ministry specialists served the governing Council as program staff officers and executives were appointed by and served at the behest of the chief executive officer, a title that was added to the office of the Presiding Bishop.

This is a small group of the Commission’s minutes and reports. Of note is a 1931 report by Frank Gavin on the condition of the Church in Europe and the Middle East, which was filed with the Committee on Ecclesiastical Relations as it was then known.

This fonds documents the work of Ecumenical Officer Peter Day in representing the Episcopal Church on various external Christian bodies engaged in consultation on common liturgical and social matters, as well as discussions of unity. Of particular note are the Episcopal Church's files on the Consultation on Church Unity (COCU). Correspondence, reports, newsletters, articles, questionnaires are also found in the records.

The records of the Deputy for Anglican Relations comprise correspondence, meeting files, and printed materials from the office of the Rev. Charles A. Cesaretti, who was appointed Deputy to the Presiding Bishop for Anglican Relations by Bishop Browning, beginning in 1986. The majority of the files document meetings and official functions that Cesaretti attended around the world. Included are reports, correspondence regarding planning and travel logistics, sharing of funding among ACC members, and internal commentary touching on documents and statements proposed by other Anglican partners which sometimes reveal serious theological rifts in the global Communion.

In addition, an interfaith conference on disarmament and an inter-religious trip to the USSR, as well as records of Bishop Desmond Tutu’s installation and correspondence and meeting files for the Churches’ Emergency Committee on South Africa are included.

The records of the Office of the Presiding Bishop consist of minutes, reports, and correspondence primarily from the period when the Most Reverend John Maury Allin was Presiding Bishop. Some materials date from Allin’s successor, Edmund Lee Browning. Also included are materials relating to the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief and the Venture in Mission program.

This archive consists of materials that document the Office of the Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces from when General Convention established the Office of the Suffragan Bishop to 1975. Earlier materials collected by the office relate to the history and legislation on military chaplains date back to 1924. Included in the collection are meeting minutes, correspondence, diocesan files, topical files, records of grant applications and conferences, and publicity materials.

The Papers of Maurice Votaw document his tenure at the School of Journalism at St. John’s University in Shanghai, China, which he also helped found. Correspondence, reports, published material, photographs, oral history transcripts, and memorabilia make up the collection. A significant portion of the correspondence details his efforts on behalf of the missionaries in China during WWII.

The Papers of John Torok consist primarily of correspondence with some legal or ecclesiastical documents. Torok’s correspondence centers largely on his own efforts to serve as an ordained person in the U.S. Episcopal Church. The material has value to understanding the complexity in ecumenical relationships in the inter-war period. The various legal, diplomatic, medical, and academic documents, including depositions, transcripts of an interrogation that Torok received at the hands of the Economic Warfare division in 1942, and the confession of William Emhardt of the National Council regarding his attempt to undermine Torok in 1924.

Torok’s writings in this collection are primarily ecclesiastical and relate to Count Michael Karolyi, who was briefly the leader of the First Hungarian People’s Republic, 1918-1919. Torok had served under him in the State Department.

The Papers of Mary Abbott and Julia Chester Emery primarily consist of correspondence documenting major events in the lives of the sisters. Julia Emery’s correspondence documents her travels, retirement, and death, leading to a rather unbalanced picture of her life. Mary Emery’s correspondence is much more prolific, with letters existing for almost every year between 1862 and 1901. Also included in the collection are manuscripts, printed material, clippings, and memorabilia. Limited correspondence, biographical information, and literary works relating to other family members, including their father, John Emery, are also present.

Bishop Scarlett's papers reflect his keen sense of social activism and interest in current events. Almost half the papers in this record group consists of Scarlett's sermons and addresses. Personal writings, correspondence, committee and commission records, photographs, scrapbooks, and ephemera round out the collection.

The Emhardt papers consist primarily of correspondence and minutes and reports of organizations with which he was connected, specifically the Christian Unity Foundation and the Anglican and Eastern Association. Records from miscellaneous committees and organizations of which Emhardt was also associated, including the Committee for Church Work Among Foreign-Born Americans, round out the collection.

The Papers of Katharine Putnam document segments of her work as a deaconess stationed in China in the decades leading up to the Communist revolution in the late 1940s. The correspondence and diaries present limited details of Putnam’s life with the most documentation dating from World War II. Photographs comprise the bulk of the collection, most of which are related to the China Mission with approximately one fifth being cultural scenes of China. Also included are several liturgies written in Chinese as well as an album of photos and inscriptions that was created as a memento to Putnam upon her departure from China in 1950.

Agnes Mahony’s personal papers consist entirely of correspondence mostly between Mahony and a fellow missionary in Liberia, Nathan Matthews.