Published
A category that distinguishes the establishment of foreign mission churches and the missionaries sent by the DFMS, including personnel records generated on individuals engaged in work outside the United States and in Episcopal Church provincial jurisdiction. The records document recruitment, training, and placement of DFMS missionaries or representatives, mission volunteers, and others engaged in evangelism or service work abroad or in technical assistance to others in jurisdictions beyond the United States. The records also frequently contain abundant personal information on individual experiences in foreign service.
In 1910, General Convention established the General Board of Religious Education in response to the changing landscape of higher education in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1913, the Department of Collegiate Education was created under the Board. In 1919, with the establishment of the National Council, the Board of Religious Education became the Department of Religious Education. In 1929, the department created thirteen separate commissions for its work, one of which was a Commission on College Work. The Secretary and Commission continued to operate under these titles through 1938, when the Religious Education Department was renamed the Department of Christian Education.
In 1940, the Division of College Work was created, and in 1942 it was placed on equal footing with the Department of Christian Education, under the newly formed Home Department. As the number of college and university students grew over the decades, the scope of the division’s work grew as well. By the 1950s, the division was involved in establishing college chaplaincies, supporting local parish work, and creating missions to young women and minorities. The division also ministered to university faculty, graduate students, and foreign students. The Division of College Work was renamed the College and University Division in 1963.
The restructuring of the Church in 1967 brought about the closure of the Home Department and, with it, the College and University Division. Higher education ministries for some time thereafter were carried on in a reduced capacity and on a largely provincial or entirely local level, supplemented with some financial grants or block funds towards stipends provided by Executive Council.
Published
The records of the Division of College work document the Church’s work in college and university communities around the United States. Budgets and grant awards, and photographs constitute the unique records in this group. The photographs depict students, faculty, clergy, and lay leaders at conferences and gatherings in a variety of settings, as well as church buildings and interiors at various colleges and universities around the United States.
Business Files, 1932-1963
Photographs (from albums), 1918-1949
Access to Episcopal Church records is governed by the Archives Public Access Policy. Research requests must be submitted in writing.
The Archives is able to respond to limited requests for reproductions subject to copyright restrictions, internal policy, and the condition of the source documents.
Henry Forrester was ordained to the diaconate in 1870 and to the priesthood in 1872. He served as a missionary in the Missionary District of New Mexico and Arizona beginning in 1874. Together with the new bishop of the district, William Forbes Adams, he performed the first Episcopal worship service at the Exchange Hotel on the Plaza in Albuquerque on March 4, 1875. After Bishop Adams’s retirement several months later, Forrester took on ecclesiastical oversight of the Missionary District and established St. Paul’s in Las Vegas as the ecclesiastical center. He continued to travel widely around the territory, establishing missionary outposts in 15 towns.
In 1880, George Kelly Dunlop was elected to fill the vacancy left by Adams’ retirement. That same year, the first convention of the Missionary District was held. Dunlop appointed Forrester priest to the congregation in Albuquerque. Forrester continued to travel across the territory, encouraging the missions he had established in the district. He reported in 1882 that “land has been purchased at 4th and Silver” for $5,000 and in November the first service in St. John’s Church was attended by 33 people.
At the General Convention of 1892 the Board of Missions appointed Forrester to succeed the Rev. W. B. Gordon as the Presiding Bishop’s resident representative to the Mexican Episcopal Church, a position he held until his death in 1904.
Published
Henry Forrester’s working papers primarily document his domestic missionary activity in New Mexico and include four bound volumes of correspondence sent and received beginning with the final months of his rectorship in Terry, Mississippi (1874), through his early services in Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque. Also represented in the archive is a scrapbook volume titled “Forresteriana,” which covers the period 1871 to 1880 and includes clippings on topics of concern to him, news items on his work, published letters, and tracts written by Forrester for his work with the Spanish speaking population of the territory.
Letters, 1874-1882
Scrapbook, 1871-1880
Journal, 1849
Access to Episcopal Church records is governed by the Archives Public Access Policy. Research requests must be submitted in writing.
The Archives is able to respond to limited requests for reproductions subject to copyright restrictions, internal policy, and the condition of the source documents.
Published
Records in this collection reflect the administrative and programmatic oversight activities of the national Episcopal Church entities responsible for education and lay Christian formation between 1920 and 1971. Though the collection is small, it covers a wide array of topics in Christian Education, including: curriculum development; continuing education; the Christian Nurture series; the Seabury series of Sunday school materials; departmental reorganization; and Christian education in various overseas regions. The materials include correspondence, minutes, reports, articles, audio tapes, and printed matter such as publications, articles, and addresses.
The correspondence includes material from the 1920s (when the unit was known as the Department of Religious Education) directed to the first Executive Secretary, the Rev. John Suter; there is then a gap, with the next group of correspondence beginning in the early 1950s. The 1970-1971 correspondence offers a good overview of issues faced in the period when there was no staff officer in charge of religious education.
A 1957 report titled “Review of Activities, Department of Christian Education, Protestant Episcopal Church” presents a comprehensive look at what the Department had accomplished up to that point and what it sought to accomplish in the future.
Correspondence, 1920s, 1950-1971
Minutes, 1947-1970
Reports and Memoranda, 1930-1971
Publications, 1940-1962
Records of the General Board of Religious Education
Access to Episcopal Church records is governed by the Archives Public Access Policy. Research requests must be submitted in writing.
The Archives is able to respond to limited requests for reproductions subject to copyright restrictions, internal policy, and the condition of the source documents.
The Department of Christian Education had its roots in the General Board of Religious Education, which was established canonically in 1910 by the General Convention for the purpose of religious instruction. As part of its efforts, it trained Sunday School teachers, developed religious curricula, organized conferences, and maintained summer schools and campus ministries.
In 1919, the General Board of Religious Education became the Department of Religious Education; instead of reporting to the General Convention, the new department now reported to the Presiding Bishop and National Council. In 1938 its name was changed to the Department of Christian Education. In 1942, the department was brought under the umbrella of the newly formed Home Department, resulting in its brief re-designation as the Division of Christian Education. It was again made a separate department in 1947.
As a result of the Executive Council’s reorganization in 1968, the Department of Christian Education was integrated into the Section I (Service to Dioceses) program group alongside the Home Department, General Division of Research and Field Study, and General Division of Women’s Work with their functions being combined and streamlined to improve organizational flexibility. From 1970 to 1973, there was no staff officer in charge of religious education. The work was briefly carried out thereafter under the direction of a Program Group on Education, followed by an Education Committee headed by an Educational Officer of Executive Council, until the Office of Religious Education was established. Today, educational responsibilities are carried out by different formation ministries within The Episcopal Church.
Published
This collection consists of periodicals that were created for leaders in the field of Christian education as well as students and parents and covers two periods with a noticeable gap: 1927-1947 and 1953-1982. The publications provide guidance and leadership in the field and also serve as a forum to unify discussion and exchange current ideas on education.
Findings in Religious Education, 1927-1932
Bulletin for Leaders in Religious Education, 1934-1937
The Broadcast, 1934-1942
Christian Education Findings, 1953-1971
The Small Church Schools Bulletin, 1960-1963
For Your Information, 1974, 1975, c.1981
Aware, 1974-1982
Records of the General Board of Religious Education (including Department of Religious Education and Department of Christian Education)
Department of Christian Education
Department of Christian Education. Records of the General Field Services
Access to Episcopal Church records is governed by the Archives Public Access Policy. Research requests must be submitted in writing.
The Archives is able to respond to limited requests for reproductions subject to copyright restrictions, internal policy, and the condition of the source documents.