Letter to the Editor

The following paragraphs are excerpts from a letter written to the editor of the Voice by Lannae Graham, PO Box 457, Montreat, NC 28757.

The Historical Foundation of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in Montreat (in recent years renamed the Presbyterian Historical Society Montreat Office) is being sold down the river.

The building will be closed and the holdings are scheduled to be dispersed, possibly as early as the end of October, with large amounts going to the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia … Why? Because the General Assembly's Stated Clerk and the staff in Philadelphia are not so much interested in making Presbyterian historical materials available to the public, as they are in exercising power. The stated reason for the move is economic … But the Stated Clerk's office has consistently blocked efforts to raise funds for the Historical Foundation. …

In April of 2004, there was a public meeting in Upper Anderson Auditorium in Montreat, at which a task force considering this matter heard public testimony about the Montreat facility from the more than 200 people present, along with letters from Presbyterians all over the world. The people in that room came from a wide range of backgrounds, from the very conservative to the very liberal,
serious scholars and ordinary people. But with almost one voice, they strongly urged the task force not to move the materials out of Montreat. …

Reflect a little on what we will be losing. The Historical Foundation houses one of the most fabulous collections of archival, library, and museum materials about Presbyterian and Reformed Christians anywhere in the world. Unlike Philadelphia, whose collection is limited to American Presbyterian history, the Historical Foundation's collections include material from Presbyterian and Reformed denominations worldwide, and not just those brought into existence as a result of Southern Presbyterian mission efforts. Treasures abound there, from the leather-bound, vellum copy of the Corpus Reformatorum, printed at the time of the Reformation, to current periodicals and everything in between. The collection of Presbyterian and Reformed session records, and of presbytery and General Assembly minutes, goes all the way back to pre-Revolutionary times in the American colonies. Our Historical Foundation at Montreat houses the world's largest collection of Presbyterian and Reformed periodicals. The list of manuscript holdings is absolutely stunning.

In addition to all this, the collections at Montreat include something especially priceless, but which Philadelphia doesn't seem to value, namely the Local Church History Collection. Since the 1920's, Southern Presbyterians have been writing yearly histories of their local churches and filing the original copies at Montreat. In the summer, hundreds of people would come to read about their own churches, and about those of friends and relatives … The literary quality of these histories might vary, but just think what this represents: a grass roots glimpse into the everyday life of hundreds of local churches over a period of almost a hundred years. What went on in local churches on a weekly basis during World War II? What effect did the charismatic movement have on congregations in the 1970s? How did Southern Presbyterian congregations respond to the civil rights movement of the 1960s? What would any scholar give for a similar collections of histories of local churches in Europe during the Reformation?

At the public meeting in Montreat last year, many practical reasons for leaving the material here were mentioned, including ease of access at the major Presbyterian conference center (Montreat is within a day's driving distance of one third of the population of the United States), and the availability of many missionaries nearby to help translate materials which are in foreign languages. Within fifteen minutes' walk of the Historical Foundation, you will find people who are delighted to help you by translating Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, French, Tschiluba, German, Latin, Greek, Bakuba, Hebrew, Russian and Spanish.

If taken to Philadelphia, the collections would be essentially out of reach for most of the people who
have been using them … Scholars of Southern history (mostly located at colleges and universities in the South) will be in a real fix. Graduate students on a meager budget can seldom afford a trip to Philadelphia for even a short stay, let alone at metropolitan motels long enough to study primary source material in depth....

There has been some rumor that the materials would be available on­line. Not a chance. A denomination with seriously dwindling revenues could not possibly undertake such an expensive endeavor; it would mean scanning millions of pages, and that will not happen.

Speaking of seriously dwindling revenues, there is also concern that in a few years there won't even be enough money for keeping the facility at Philadelphia open. It is more expensive to run than Montreat. Moving the material from Montreat to Philadelphia is not the most economical thing to do. And it also doesn't make sense to make such a drastic move with seriously divisive issues already impending at the 2006 General Assembly …

Anyone interested in what is being done to present an alternative to this disaster may write to: Friends of the Historical Foundation, PO Box 207, Montreat, NC 28757.