LOUISVILLE — After months of discussion and hard work — and a lot more passion than some might expect history to incite — an agreement apparently has been struck to allow the Presbyterian Historical Society to continue to have a presence in Montreat, N.C.
Under a concept approved March 29 by the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, the historical society’s Philadelphia offices would serve as the main repository for archives of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
But a new Center the Study of Presbyterian and Reformed History and Theology would be created at Montreat, in partnership with Columbia Theological Seminary and the Montreat Conference Center. That center would require considerable new funding, and a feasibility study is still underway to assess whether enough money likely could be raised.
Catherine Ulrich, an Arkansas pastor and Committee on the Office of the General Assembly member who’s worked on the issue, said about $10 million would be needed and could be raised over about 10 years, with Columbia seminary being the lead partner in the project.
The committee’s unanimous vote in Louisville March 29 was essentially saying, “This is a direction we want to support and we like the idea,” said James M. Collie, executive presbyter of Santa Fe presbytery and a committee member.
There also would be a records center for temporary storage of records at the PC(USA)’s national offices in Louisville. And the proposed arrangement would make each office of the historical society unique and eliminate duplication, Ulrich said.
There had been discussion of possibly merging all operations of the historical society at one site, possibly in Philadelphia — a conversation that drew an intense response from Montreat loyalists, some of whom have homes in the area or hold the Montreat Conference Center close to their hearts, and who argued that the PC(USA) needs to continue to tell the story of Presbyterian work around the world by keeping open the historical society’s regional office at Montreat.
The Montreat office has maintained the records of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the southern branch of the denomination that merged with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1983 to form the PC(USA). And more than 1,000 Presbyterian congregations from southern states have sent their session records to Montreat — and those records have brought to the historical office in the mountains a steady stream of historians and researchers and loyal Presbyterians just stopping by.
The task force considering what to do reported to the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly that it considered combining all historical society work in one spot, but it found that the historical society efforts in each place “have been a significant benefit to the church” and that the costs of transferring the archives and providing appropriate facilities to house them in one place made consolidation in a single location “unattractive.”
Ulrich described it this way: “We have details wonks on our task force. They scrubbed through all of the details. Trust us.”
The task force reported that the historical society has in recent years received an average of 3 percent annual cost of living budget increases, but that will not continue — the projection is for the historical society’s per capita budget to decrease from about $2 million to about $1.6 million starting in 2007.
Here’s some of what’s being proposed:
MONTREAT
A new Center the Study of Presbyterian and Reformed History and Theology would be established at Montreat, in partnership with Columbia Theological Seminary and the Montreat Conference Center. That center would hold “core historical records of Presbyterianism in the southeastern region of the country,” including congregation, presbytery and synod records, the report states.
The museum of Presbyterian artifacts now at Montreat would be kept open and a theological library would be established.
And the center would provide programming through Columbia’s doctor of ministry and lifelong learning programs to encourage the study of history and theology in the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions. The seminary also would collaborate with Montreat Conference Center to co-sponsor conferences and retreats involving theology and church history.
Columbia’s board of trustees would be responsible for “ongoing control and direction of the facility and its activities,” the report states.
PHILADELPHIA
This would continue to be the national headquarters of the PC(USA) archives, and additional archival space would be added (although exactly how that can be done with the limitations of the current office space there poses some challenges). “When you’re in the business of collecting, you have to have a place to put stuff,” said Frederick Heuser Jr., director of the Presbyterian Historical Society.
Installing compact shelving in the Philadelphia office would probably provide enough space for the next 15 or 20 years, and there’s room to add on to the building after that if needed, said Marjory Sly, the society’s deputy director. If things are handled right, she said, the historical society probably can get by for another century in that spot.
