14189
April 21, 2004

Montreat PHS office defended 

130 attend meeting on proposed consolidation in Philadelphia

by Sharon K. Youngs
Office of the General Assembly

MONTREAT, NC — “There’s a deep passion here for problem-solving,” said George Barber III, the president of the conference center here. “Harness this energy, wisdom and passion to let us help you.”

     Barber offered that advice to a task force plotting the future of the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) during an April 16 meeting here.

     Barber was one of 41 people who spoke during the three-hour convocation, which drew a crowd of more than 130. The task force was created by the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) to follow up on a 2001 report of a team of consultants hired to assess the society’s technology needs and to advise whether some PHS operations should be consolidated.

     The speakers included pastors, retired pastors, elders, educators and former missionaries, as well as historians and archivists. Many expressed fear that consolidation would bring the closing of the PHS office in Montreat and the transfer of materials stored there to the society’s main office in Philadelphia.

     The speakers lauded Montreat for its Presbyterian heritage, educational  assets, mild winter weather, and free parking.

     Sam Hill, a professor of religion, told the task force, “This place is super-saturated with history.”

     “There’s nothing else like Montreat in the Southeast,” noted Nick Willborn, of Taylor, SC.

     Montreat resident “Chick” Dimmock spoke of the vast collection of records and artifacts of missionary work in China that her family has given to the society. Paul Crane, a former medical missionary, said “people from Korea, Africa and other places who come to America wanting to know about their Presbyterian roots” come to Montreat to find them.

     Philip Arnold, of Atlanta, said shutting down the Montreat office would be “like losing a branch library and forcing everyone to go to the main library (in Philadelphia).”

     Bruce Gillette, a pastor from Pitman, NJ, said that might not be such a bad idea. “I drove more than 600 miles ... to tell you that Philadelphia is only a day’s drive away — and the parking is free in Philadelphia too,” he said.

     Several speakers urged the task force to consider a consortium or partnership with one or more educational institutions. Erskine Clarke, a professor of church history from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, said his institution, for one, is “serious about working in partnership with the task force.”

     At the end of the meeting, task force member Burnett Kelly summed up the speakers’ concerns, citing the pride and sense of ownership the Montreat community feels for the society’s presence; the importance of keeping historical materials accessible to researchers and educators; concern that keeping such materials in one location increases its vulnerability to fire or other disaster; and the fiduciary and moral responsibility the society owes to donors of historical materials.

     The task force is to make a preliminary report to COGA this fall. Its final report is due in the spring of 2005.

     The co-moderators of the group are Anne Bond, an elder from Denver, CO, the moderator of the Committee on the Presbyterian Historical Society, and the Rev. Katherine Cunningham, of Ridgewood, NJ, the COGA moderator.

     For information about PHS, visit its Web site at www.history.pcusa.org or call (215) 627-1852.