Blog

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.

Oral History, Then And Now

April 25, 2022

Over the course of the 1980s, a dedicated group of Presbyterian Historical Society volunteers--including former PHS Board member Bill Marshall--spread out across the country to gather the testimonies of significant Presbyterians. Among these noteworthy Presbyterians were missionaries, former prisoners of war, and the first generation of ordained women. The ways we collect oral histories forty-plus years later have changed, but the reasons for doing them—to gather voices that guide...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Collections

2021 Annual Report

April 19, 2022

Dear friends,

As we write this in the early Spring of 2022, we live in hope that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is behind us.

Reflecting on last year, we remember that 2021 was indeed shaped by COVID-19—both by the promise of widespread vaccinations and the prevalence of the Delta and Omicron variants that tempered our return to “normal.” At the Presbyterian Historical Society, we leaned heavily on creativity, flexibility, and perseverance to continue our work. As the national archives of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we...

Author:

Nancy

Tags:

Presbyterian Heritage

Finding and Providing Sanctuary

April 19, 2022

Newspaper clippings during John Fife's conviction and trial.

Forty years ago, Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona, publicly declared itself a sanctuary for people fleeing war in Central America, defying U.S. immigration authorities, and challenging us all to love our neighbor.

After five hours of discussion at a congregation meeting in January 1982, the vote was called: 79-2 in favor. Southside would declare itself a sanctuary two years after the assassination of...

Author:

David S

Tags:

Presbyterian Heritage, Sanctuary

Now Processed: UPCUSA Emergency Ministry on Conscience and War Records

April 11, 2022

Cover of War, Peace, & Conscience: Resources for the Church's Ministry, 1970. [RG 533, Box 7, Folder 38]

The UPCUSA Emergency Ministry on Conscience and War (EMCW) Records have been processed as Record Group 533, and the guide to the records is now available: https://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/research-...

Author:

Nick

Tags:

Ecumenism, Vietnam War, Collections, Archival Processing

The Short-Lived Texas-Mexican Presbytery Pt. 2

April 5, 2022

Still from a film featuring Texas-Mexican Presbytery's churches in central and east Texas in the 1940s. Courtesy of Texas Archive of the Moving Image. Source

This is the second blog in a two-part series of the Presbyterian Church in the...

Author:

Gabe

Tags:

Hispanic Presbyterians, Missions

You are here

Blog

Oral History, Then And Now

2021 Annual Report

Finding and Providing Sanctuary

Now Processed: UPCUSA Emergency Ministry on Conscience and War Records

The Short-Lived Texas-Mexican Presbytery Pt. 2