Introduction Public Service Reading Room Point Group visit Scenes of Archival Life Acquisitions Processing Kudos Space Staff

Rescuing the Memories of Our Peoples Conference

"I will do my best, then, to provide a way for you to remember these matters at all times after my death."

II Peter 1:15, Today's English Version

The entire group on the balcony of the conference center


From September 29 through October 6, Bob attended a conference in Rome convened jointly by the International Association of Mission Studies and the Catholic Association of Missiologists. The group met within sight of St. Peter's Basilica, the site which, according to oral tradition, ancient documents, archaeological evidence and long-held belief, was the site of the burial of the Apostle Peter. The forty-two participants from twenty-five countries represented every continent except Antarctica and they were all involved in some way in not just preserving documents of Christian history but in making those meaningful and usable by the living generation. The purpose of the meeting was to put church archives in different parts of the world in contact with each other and to work out ways they could assist each others. Bob gave a paper on the Archives' collecting and outreach programs and participated in a session on oral history methodology. A number of useful initiatives were begun. But above all it was empowering, exciting and humbling to see the diversity of Christ Jesus' bride, the Church, and her unity in Him reflected in this one tiny, temporary fragment, like the evidences of an ocean that are found in a raindrop. The Archives' staff hopes in future years to continue in its own way the work of the conference by staff exchanges with other Christian archives.


  Bob participating in a panel with Herbert Swanson (Thailand), Anthony Njoku (Nigeria), and Elisabeth Wittman (United States)  


"After this I looked and there was an enormous crowd – no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language and they stood in front of the throne and the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands"

Revelation 7:9


Reading Room (previous)