Booking will soon be open for this year’s Religious Archives Group conference:

‘Unearthing the unexpected in religious archives’.

We’re delighted to be hosted by the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester for this year’s conference, which will take place on Wednesday 11 November 2026.

From artefacts that have ended up in surprising places to topics you might not expect to find lurking in religious archives, our theme this year is ‘the unexpected.’  Our speakers, Professor Sasha Handley, Tim Procter, Professor Michael Questier, Dr Naomi Baker and Neil Sayer, will cover subjects ranging from poltergeists to royal love letters!

The full programme and booking details will be available soon. Spaces will be limited so please return to the conference page to avoid disappointment.

Please see our conference page for further details about last year’s conference and a list of previous events.

Our annual report for the past year is now available to read here

RAG has published guidance on the care of the archives of religious communities, available to download here

This focuses on the historic records of Christian religious communities within the UK, though much of the advice will also be relevant to communities within other faiths. It is aimed at community members or staff without professional training who may be assigned responsibility for archives, and encourages good stewardship in preserving these historic records for the future

The Religious Archives Group (RAG) is a voluntary association, founded in 1989, for anybody interested in the collection, preservation and use of religious archives, and personal papers of religious leaders, in the UK. This includes archives created and used by private organisations and individuals and those in public repositories.

We support the archives of all faith communities, including those of secularist organizations. We cover all forms of record, including digital media, which are preserved in the UK and which concern religion or irreligion, even if they relate to foreign countries.

The group aims to advance education, research, scholarship and stewardship by working, separately and collectively with others, to promote awareness of religious archives and enhanced levels of access to them and of collection care.

We maintain a directory of religious archives in the UK and produce guidance on looking after archives. We also host an annual conference.

To find out how to become a member and join the RAG mailing list, visit Membership. For more information about how RAG works, visit About RAG.