The United Church of Canada has webpages devoted to archives and records guidance for congregations and conferences, research resources, and links to its network of archival repositories.
One aim of this blog is to draw attention to relevant advice and guidance from outside the UK. This time, it’s from the Archives Research Centre of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand at http://www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/
The Centre has a pro-active archives collecting policy (http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/collectionpolicy.pdf) and its website offers a number of useful resources, including a guide to records management for the parish and church organisations at http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/recordsmanagement1.pdf
and a guide to archives management at http://www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/whatarewetokeep.pdf
The introductory lines of the archives management guide summarize what archives can offer the church, and are worth quoting:
“Our parish archives are valuable and delicate documents:
they are strands of memory
they are collective memory
they help us converse with our Presbyterian past
they convey visions
they tell of hope
they tell us about the progression of faith in the community
they act as reminders where we have erred
they are important in charting a future of Christian witness“
Religious Archives Group 