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by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor
October/November 2005
 |
Every local church member’s baptismal record is as important as Ben Franklin’s (shown above), which – along with a bounty of historical items – can be seen at the Congregational Library in Boston. Photo by Jessica Steytler |
She sees dead people.
That was the first thing Peggy Bendroth told the attendees of one of the MACUCC’s regional meetings late last October. But she wasn’t referring to transparent ghosts or clanking chains or even a costumed trick-or-treater for Halloween. She was talking about the figures of the past, sights and sensations that millions of people have already experienced.
According to Dr. Margaret Bendroth, the Librarian/Executive Director of the American Congregational Association, we all see dead people all the time. And there’s no better place to search them out than at the Congregational Library.
The library and archives are administered by the American Congregational Association, an organization founded in 1853 ‘for the purpose of establishing and perpetuating a library of religious history and literature and all things Congregational.’ It is Bendroth’s job to keep that history alive. Bendroth is strongly convinced that knowing and understanding the people of the past, is a very significant tool for understanding our own identity as the United Church of Christ.
“Being a Congregationalist today and
being one in the seventeenth century
are, of course, vastly different things,”
she says. “We don’t, for example, generally
go for two-hour sermons nowadays,
nor do we require every new
member to stand up in front of the
church and give an account of their
personal conversion. But we’re still the
conservators of their central idea: that
God speaks in a special way when people
gather together under mutual
covenant. Being a Congregationalist
means more than just the idea that no
one else can tell your church what to do – it means taking on an obligation to
become part of a communion of saints,
a community that – the Apopstles' Creed
tells us – includes both the living and
the dead.”
Bendroth is reminded of that fact every day. The Congregational library,located next to an historic cemetery on 14 Beacon Street in Boston, contains
all of the records of church life over the
past several centuries—statistics on
membership, sermons, minutes, Sunday
school literature, hymnals, Bibles,
commentaries, biographies, and all
sorts of other historical items.
“The Congregational Library is a
great source of education
and inspiration,” says Don
Overlock, former
MACUCC Western Area Minister. “It’s a wonderful
resource for me when I
research church histories or topics for
sermons and papers. I have always
found everyone there to be very
responsive to the local church needs."
Carl Scovel, a Unitarian minister with many ties to the UCC, agrees.“There are not many other religious libraries that are interested in Congregationalism. I have used the Congregational Library for researching Congregational istory, polity, and theological issues. I have preached in UCC churches and have used the library as a quiet spot to write those sermons or prepare histories of the worship materials.”
“It’s an unsung resource for pastors,”
says Overlock. “I still can’t
believe you can contact the Library,
request a book, and then keep it for
three or four weeks, just for the price of
postage.”
According to its visitors, it’s that
preserved history influencing today's
sermons and papers that make the
Congregational Library such a valuable
resource.
“I would go back into the stacks,” says Bendroth, “pull something off the shelves and be surprised by what I found.” Bendroth has seen papers written by John Hancock in defense of the people of the Boston Tea Party, baptismal records of Benjamin Franklin, and an early copy of the Eliot Bible in the Algonquin language used by missionaries to the Native Americans.
Bendroth warns that it is crucial
for all the local churches to preserve
those memories now; and members of
the MACUCC should take a leadership
role in ensuring all the local records are
kept for posterity. “Being a good steward
of old things is, in many ways, an
act of love and respect to people who
can never, ever pay you back,” said
Bendroth.
“Although it’s my job at the Library to keep memories alive and well, churches need to take the time to be good record-keepers too,” she says. “Take time and care to store your materials carefully. Those old record books literally molding away in a closet belonged to somebody once, probably someone who spent many hours writing in meeting minutes or baptismal records by hand. It may not be financially valuable, but it’s very valuable for other reasons. So these old records deserve a safe final resting place, not just for ourselves and for our ancestors, but for others who are still coming down the pike.”
At this time, the Congregational
Library cannot keep or restore records
for individual churches. However,
workers at the Library can help local
church officers decide what is important,
advise how to organize, and help
arrange microfilming of the materials.
“Late October is an auspicious time for thinking about the importance of the past,’ Bendroth reminds us. “This is the season when we remember ‘all saints’ and it reminds us that our ancestors once owned and inhabited the same beautiful earth that we now enjoy as an inheritance. They gave you the roads you drive, the names of your towns and cities, the hymns you sing on Sunday, the books you read in front of a fire on Sunday afternoons. They are a heritage, a burden, an inspiration, and a conundrum—and, from what I hear at the Congregational Library,” Bendroth jokes, “I can’t imagine that they’d want it any other way.”
The Congregational Library is
located at 14 Beacon Street, 2nd Floor,
Boston, Massachusetts 02108. The
library, archives and reading room are
open Monday to Friday 8:30 am-4:30
pm, with the exception of holidays.
Check their website at www.14beacon.org for additional information.
Margaret Bendroth is an avid student of American religious history as well as an active layperson in the United Church of Christ and a member of the First Church in Cambridge. Her husband Norman is an interim minister at the Congregational Church of Topsfield.