CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 5th August 2000
From: The RCB
Library
Email: RCB Library
Care and Custody of Church Records
One of the important responsibilities which the Church of Ireland has
inherited is to care properly for a considerable body of archival
material which details not only the life of the Church but also of the
wider Irish society with which it interacted. This responsibility has
been discharged largely by equipping the Representative Church Body
Library in Dublin with appropriate accommodation in which to safely
store church records, trained staff to catalogue them, and reading rooms
in which they can be consulted.
Since 1981 the Representative Church Body has been continuously
investing in its archival responsibilities and if this commitment has
not always received the public recognition which it is due, there is, at
least, a growing acceptance that in this aspect of the Church's cultural
affairs the RCB is acquitting itself well. The Library now holds records
from 685 parishes, 17 dioceses, 17 cathedrals, the non-current records
of the General Synod, RCB and their committees and commissions, as well
as 636 collections of manuscripts which relate to many aspects of the
life and witness of the Church of Ireland.
That this is not a sterile or self indulgent activity is clear from
the growing body of publications based on the collections. These are
adding to our knowledge about the Church in Ireland and how it has
developed. The publication of the history of Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin, earlier this year, provided the most graphic illustration of the
scholarly uses to which the archives of the Church can be put. At the
other end of the scale, the recent upsurge of interest in local history
has produced greater curiosity about the Church of Ireland than ever
before. Records of our parishes, churches and rectories are eagerly
sought by a growing band of enthusiasts who wish to know more about the
communities in which they live.
In many instances such enquiries, together with the seemingly
insatiable desire for genealogical information, bring people into
contact with the Church of Ireland for the first time. They offer
unrivalled opportunities for a minority Church to explain itself and to
share its considerable inheritance.
However, despite the progress of the last twenty years, much remains
to be done to secure the archival heritage of the Church of Ireland, and
to this end a millennium initiative has been agreed. The Executive
Committee of the RCB has endorsed a proposal from the Library and
Archives Committee that all registers of baptisms and burials should be
closed at the end of the year 2000 and new registers opened. As
registers of marriages are civil records they are outside the scope of
this initiative.
Many parishes are still using registers which are up to 100 years
old, indeed sometimes older, and it is not good for the physical
preservation of records to be in current use for so long. The RCB hopes
that parishes will transfer their non-current registers and all other
non-current records to the RCB Library where they can be safely stored,
catalogued, and, as appropriate, made available for historical research.
Tomorrow (Sunday), in Dublin, the services in Christ Church
Cathedral will be sung by the choir of the Thomas Hardy School. In St
Patrick's Cathedral, at evensong, Senator David Norris will give the
seventh address in the series "Hopes for the New Millennium".
Senator Norris, who is a member of the Cathedral congregation is well
known as a Joycean scholar, urban conservationist, gay rights campaigner
and as a most accomplished public speaker.
In St Barrahane's Church, Castletownshend, Co. Cork, on Thursday
evening the recital in the Festival of Classical Music will be given by
Sonya Keogh (mezzo soprano) and Julian Milford (piano).
Church of Ireland Notes appear in the Irish
Times whose web site may be found at http://www.ireland.com/ |
