Adapted from the Office of Public Affairs
The Archives of the Episcopal Church has unveiled a newly designed and website featuring historical items and important stories of the church.
“The archives website has been completely reorganized to enable users to locate information more quickly and intuitively,” said Mark Duffy, canonical archivist and director. “The upgrade enables the archives to reach inquirers with timely news of its holdings and to publish new educational content from the church’s historic collections.”
The Archives of the Episcopal Church, located in Austin, Texas, is dedicated to observing and honoring the history of the Episcopal Church.
The new website includes a major exhibit on the life and work of John Maury Allin, 23rd presiding bishop. Venture in Ministry weaves historical text and rich media into an exploration of Bishop Allin’s ministry during the church’s period of deep institutional change in the 1970s and 1980s.
The exhibit encompasses a biography of Allin’s experience within the church as it dealt with issues of civil rights, liturgical revision, and women’s ordination to the priesthood.
“John Allin’s ministry was rooted in a generous understanding of mission in service to others as the central organizing force in the church’s life, and that theme is worth revisiting as we embark on a new examination of our capacity for reconciliation,” Duffy said. “The simple explanations for how we arrived at today’s church are too easy when one ponders the remarkable compression of time, geography, and opposing ideas in the recent decades. We can still draw insights from those who passed through the fire of transformational change.”
The exhibit was made possible by the donation of a large and relatively complete archive of Allin’s papers and a financial gift by the John Maury Allin Foundation of Jackson, Mississippi.
