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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

Now Processed: Church World Service Records

July 26, 2021

The Church World Service Records have been processed as Record Group 529 and the guide to the records is now available: https://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/research-tools/guides-archival-collections/rg-529

In 1946, seventeen denominations formed Church World Service (CWS) as a relief agency. Churches throughout the United States provided over 11 million pounds of food and medical supplies to communities in...

Author: 
Elizabeth Wittrig
Tags: 
Collections, ecumenism
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Now Processed: The Burned Churches Project Records

July 26, 2021

In June 1996, the Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones led 38 pastors to Washington DC. These pastors had all served church buildings that were burned by white supremacists. For two days, the pastors met with the President of the United States, the attorney general, and members of Congress to share how the fires impacted their church communities and the racism they experienced in the aftermath of the arson. The pastors sharing their stories led to the creation of the...

Author: 
Elizabeth Wittrig
Tags: 
African American History, ecumenism, Collections
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Processing the Church World Service Records

March 15, 2021

In 1946, seventeen denominations formed Church World Service (CWS) as a relief agency. Churches throughout the United States provided over 11 million pounds of food and medical supplies to communities in Europe and Asia that were affected by World War II. In the next two decades, CWS expanded its work into Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, and the mission of the organization shifted from providing immediate disaster relief to creating long-term development projects in partnership with local communities. CWS also began to work in...

Author: 
Elizabeth Wittrig
Tags: 
ecumenism, Archival Processing, Presbyterian Heritage
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PC(USA) Delegation to the Vatican, 2001

January 22, 2019

In March 2001, fifteen Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) representatives traveled to the Vatican on a return visit from the previous December's first-ever formal meeting between the PC(USA) and the Holy See. PHS has newly digitized video of the Presbyterian delegation's audience with Pope John Paul II--with original footage provided by the Centro Televisivo Vaticano.

The outcome of the meetings was a joint statement in which all parties resolved to find agreement on the...

Author: 
David S
Tags: 
ecumenism, Stated Clerks
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Presbyterian Ecumenists and the Russian Famine

August 18, 2017

In the period following the triumph of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution, many American Protestants viewed Russia and all of war-torn Europe as a field for the exercise of mercy. To commemorate the centennial of that momentous 1917, we recall the work of the Federal Council of Churches, and its representative to Russia, the Presbyterian minister John Sheridan Zelie.

In 1919, the Federal Council was chiefly concerned with the maintenance of Orthodox Christianity, establishing that February an ad hoc Committee on Religious Conditions in Russia. Conflict within Orthodoxy would...

Author: 
David S
Tags: 
Russia, ecumenism, 1917
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