SACRAMENTO — A feasibility study considering the future of the Presbyterian Historical Society has concluded that it’s unlikely enough money could be raised to create a new center to study Presbyterian history in Montreat, N.C.
So the plan now is to consider creating such a center at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. — it would be less expensive there — and to close down the Presbyterian Historical Society office in Montreat, which some Presbyterians have fought passionately to save over the last year.
A report to the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) states that those recommending that the Montreat historical society office be closed “appreciate the deep disappointment many people connected to Montreat will feel if these recommendations are adopted,” but it also contends that the changes will “benefit the whole church.”
The recommendations came from COGA members Cathy Ulrich and Steve Grace, who had been appointed to help develop a plan for the historical society’s future.
Some who supported the changes said it is financially necessary, in a church with budget difficulties, to consolidate the denomination’s historical offices, and that it is important to make sure the archival materials are professionally preserved in technologically up-to-date facilities easily accessible by researchers with an academic interest in Presbyterian history.
COGA voted unanimously in Sacramento on Sept. 22 to approve the plan, although several of its members acknowledged this would inflict pain on those with deep emotional ties both to the Presbyterian church in the southern part of the country and to Montreat itself.
“This was a very difficult decision,” said Frederick J. Heuser Jr., president of the Presbyterian Historical Society and Department of History. “I grieve for those who will be impacted by this,” and to say that some will be “mourning” the loss “is not an inappropriate word.”
Some spoke of finding new ways to celebrate and teach Presbyterian history at Montreat.
But Heuser said: “We are a small church, we are losing members every day, so they tell us. We cannot afford to celebrate a loss. But we need to find a way to move forward, to do things differently,” while still caring for one another.
Some COGA members also said they welcome creative ideas for continuing to nurture a sense of history at Montreat — perhaps through traveling exhibits or seminars on Presbyterian history.
“It’s an emotional issue,” said Martha Farmer of Kentucky, who’s involved with the Friends of the Historical Foundation at Montreat, Inc., which has wanted the Montreat office to stay open and some of whose members have offered to help financially with that. “I would have to say I believe there is money there” to support the Montreat office, Farmer said, adding that she knows of several Presbyterians of substantial wealth who have said, “I can help.”
But Farmer also acknowledged that, no matter how much Montreat supporters want to save the historical society office, “reality is upon us.”
Under the plan approved Sept. 22:
National archival material that’s now kept at Montreat would be sent to the historical society’s main offices in Philadelphia.
The center at Columbia, if it’s created, would emphasize southern Presbyterian history and would develop educational programming, some of which would be offered at the Montreat Conference Center — programming that would emphasize the study of Reformed and Presbyterian theology and history.
The center at Columbia also would house some congregational, presbytery and synod records, primarily from the southern church. Up until now, the Montreat historical society 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).
More than 1,000 Presbyterian congregations from southern states have sent their session records to Montreat. Some records would go to Philadelphia, some to Columbia. The historical society would contact the owners of private records now at Montreat — such things as family records or individual journals — to ask if they would agree to a transfer to another site.
The Montreat Conference Center would be encouraged to display some artifacts and museum items that are now at the historical society office in Montreat, to “thus provide a Presbyterian history presence in Montreat,” the report to COGA states.
The report states that an outside consultant conducted a feasibility study regarding thee possibility of initiating a fund-raising campaign to create a Center for the Study of Presbyterian and Reformed History and Theology at Montreat — conceived some months ago as a collaboration between Columbia, Montreat and the Office of the General Assembly, and perhaps salvaging the historical society office at Montreat in the process — but “it did not appear financially feasible to proceed.”
But conversations are continuing, the report states, adding that it appears the Columbia seminary Board of Trustees “would seriously consider” establishing such a center in Decatur.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, said at the Sacramento meeting that “we have reason for optimism” that the Columbia trustees will approve the plan.
COGA voted in Louisville in March 2005 to pursue the idea of creating a center –then envisioned for Montreat — and at the time estimated the cost involved to do so at about $10 million. Grace said Columbia officials have described their concept more as a program than a physical center, but stressed that discussions are ongoing and the plans still evolving.
