Overture 04-43. On the Montreat Historical Center—From the Presbytery of South Louisiana.

The Presbytery of South Louisiana overtures the 216th General Assembly (2004) to do the following:

1. Cancel or postpone any movement of church records to Philadelphia until all problems are resolved.

2. Develop a long-range funding plan to support regional archival sites for church records using modern archival methods.

3. Notify all churches with records in Montreat of any plans that affect their records and obtain their consent to any changes.

4. Budget funding to restore the staff of the Department of History in Montreat and its operation.

Rationale

There are General Assembly plans to move items stored in the former Historical Foundation, now called the Department of History, from Montreat, N.C., to Philadelphia, Pa.

The items to be moved consist mostly of those from churches in the former PCUS, which in the great majority are in much closer proximity to Montreat than Philadelphia.

These churches would have greater difficulty accessing their records in Philadelphia than Montreat.

These records for many years have been kept in excellent climate-controlled conditions in Montreat.

A former ordained pastor and missionary member of the Presbytery of South Louisiana made a large gift to build an annex to the Montreat Historical Foundation for the preservation of records of churches in the former PCUS.

This facility is recognized as the best archival facility of any denomination.

If contents were moved, this facility would be idled, negating the purpose of the donation.

The moving of these delicate records would be very expensive.

The consent of each church with records stored there would be required.

Additional funding for this function can be raised from the churches having records stored there.