Methodist Archives Center

12/13/2021

The Methodist Archives Center will be closed for the Christmas Holidays on December 20th, and we will reopen on January 4th. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

06/10/2021

06/10/2021

Local Church Heritage Award - Congratulations to Cain's Chapel United Methodist Church
Presented by AWFC Commission on Archives and History

An annual award, “The Local Church Heritage Award”, was established in 1988 to be given to the church most diligent in preserving its heritage during the year. The Commission on Archives and History would like to congratulate Cain’s Chapel United Methodist Church, Deatsville, Alabama for being our 2020 Local Church Heritage Award winner. Cain’s Chapel UMC is in the Holtville/Slapout Community and is one of the oldest known continuous church congregations in the River Region.

Cain’s Chapel UMC celebrated their bi-centennial (1820 – 2020). The theme for the year-long celebration was “Looking Back – Living Forward,” which reflected the church’s deep past as well as how the church can continue to flourish for years to come. The year-long celebration kicked off on January 12, 2020 with the dedication of the new stained-glass window in the sanctuary and the historical marker that the church received from The Alabama Historical Commission. Cain’s Chapel UMC and Cemetery are now listed in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. Guests were greeted by people in costumes of the 1820s and enjoyed a luncheon after the worship service.

The church continued to celebrate their bicentennial with special historic moments during worship services once a month as well as other special events throughout the year to commemorate this special milestone! The events held were from each twenty-year time-period of the two hundred years of Cain’s Chapel. Some of the events included an old-fashioned wedding with dinner and dancing, a brush arbor service at the Confederate Memorial Park which included a mystery guest speaker and music by the Mortar Creek Blue Grass Gospel Company. During the summer, the movie “The Story of Holtville” was shown and several cast members were there to talk about the movie. Several of the events included special guests such as local historian Annie Crenshaw and Dr. Susan Dubose who spoke on the famous Alabama Women from the last 200 years. The bicentennial homecoming was celebrated on November 8, 2020 with Bishop David W. Graves speaking.

This historic celebration took two years of planning. The planning committee created large book full of their preliminary plans as well as an extensive book of the 2020 events which included newspaper and magazine clippings and pictures of the events as well as descriptions of those events. They also included a DVD that chronicles 200 years of Cain’s Chapel UMC.

Cain’s Chapel United Methodist Church will receive a stunning plaque from the AWFC Commission on Archives and History at a later date.

**Pictures of the beautiful books for Cain's Chapel United Methodist Church for coming soon**

11/20/2020

08/20/2020

***Methodist Archives Center COVID – 19 updates***
Huntingdon College welcomed students back to campus for the start of fall semester August 10th. While the campus is open to students, faculty and staff, it still remains closed to visitors which includes anyone who wants to use the Archives Center in person. However, while the physical location of the Archives Center may be closed to the public, we are in the office and will continue to help answer any research questions you may have!

Contact information:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 334-833-4413

06/19/2020

The Methodist Archive Center would like to congratulate Bagdad United Methodist Church, out of Bagdad, Florida, for being our 2019 Local Church Heritage Award! They presented a beautiful book representing their “Preservation Celebration 2019.” A picture of their lovely book is below as well as a picture of the historical marker taken from the book.

“Preservation Celebration 2019” was a day for the church and community to come together to celebrate a historical event. The historical event was the unveiling of the Florida Heritage Landmark marker and the National Register of Historic Places recognition awarded that was given to Bagdad United Methodist Church in 1987. Along with the unveiling ceremony, the day included tours of the church, which was built in 1885, a video of the building of the church, an antique quilt display, craft sales, bake sale, gift baskets and holiday items sale as well as a BBQ chicken dinner fundraiser. Unfortunately, there will not be a presentation of the plaque at Annual Conference this year, however, the church will receive their plaque in the mail so they can proudly display it!

06/03/2020

We would like to congratulate Huntingdon College student Courtney Moore, class of 2020, for being selected as the Student Art Prize recipient for 2019 – 2020. Courtney’s piece, named “Ed’s Calling,” was also selected as this year’s Student Art Purchase for the Huntingdon College Library and will be on display in the Atrium. This piece was named “Ed’s Calling” after Rev. Ed Shirley. What a great influence Rev. Ed Shirley is to everyone he touches! Please read the artist statement below regarding “Ed’s Calling.”

Artist Statement: Ed’s Calling

Nostalgia was the theme for my Senior Capstone Exhibition 2020. My goal was to explore the relationship between where the modern touches the past, the avenues of recording history, and the impact of the past on the future. I conducted my study of these concepts through assemblages that ranged in a variety of sizes and meanings. One of my favorite aspects of my journey in creating this project was how many people were willing to contribute their own memories and items to this project.

I created an assemblage to demonstrate how the past has affected the future. I call this piece “Ed’s Calling”. For this piece, I created an assemblage using a smartphone and a rotary telephone. This piece serves as a reminder for people that without starting with the rotary phones that smartphones would not exist. The rotary phone was a gift from Ed Shirley, which is the leasing reason why I named this piece “Ed’s Calling”. It is also a reference to Mr. Shirley’s vocation because by being a pastor he is answering his true calling.

My objective was to explore the relationship between the place where the modern touches the past, the avenues of recording history, and the impact of the past on the future. In my full Senior Capstone Exhibition, I explored all three topics in multiple forms but by creating “Ed’s Calling” I can confidently say that I have explored the impact of the past on the future. I hope this piece can serve as a point of inspiration because we never would have seen most of the technology we currently possess without these forms of earlier models.

Student Art Prize Award recipient, 2019 - 2020

05/20/2020

Sunday, May 24, 2020
The Power of Through

"Heritage Sunday shall be observed on Aldersgate Day (May 24), or the Sunday preceding that date. The day provides an opportunity for reflection on heritage, celebration of where the Church has been, how it understands itself as it shapes us today, and the meaning of Christian conferencing. Heritage Sunday calls the Church to remember the past by committing itself to the continuing call of God."
from 264.1, The Book of Discipline

Heritage Sunday 2020 was to focus on highly anticipated divisions to our beloved Church post General Conference 2020 in Minneapolis, considering what our history might offer to “just such a time as this.” The COVID-19 pandemic may have changed the special Sunday’s context but not how the denomination’s legacy will inspire, support, and serve the Church in a different, now pandemic-driven “new normal” we did not expect.

The next few years of the UMC’s life will be both challenging and formative. What insight does our shared history offer to United Methodists thoughts and feelings at “just such a time as this?” What stories do we need to remember and retell? What lessons may be learned from the church's actions in past pandemics?

If your church marks Heritage Sunday, this year can bear a message from our past to shape the future like no other. If you church does NOT mark Heritage Sunday, this is the year to start.

Worship, preaching, study and discussion resources are now available on the General Commission on Archives and History (GCAH) website: http://gcah.org/resources/heritage-sunday-2020. Additional resources are being added as they become available.

03/13/2020

***COVID – 19 update***

Effective today, Friday, March 13th, the Methodist Archives Center will be closed to the public. As of now, we will reopen to the public on Monday, March 30th. Even though we are currently closed to the public, we will continue to answer research questions via email or phone.
Contact information:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 334-833-4413

02/20/2020

The Methodist Archives Center and Huntingdon College Special Collections concluded the 2020 Library & Archives Center Curator Contest this week. Congratulations to our 2020 winners Katie Cox and Jessica Brunk! The two curator displays this year are “Huntingdon College Panhellenic Review” (by Katie Cox) and “1944 – 1945 Huntingdon College Student, Harper Lee” (by Jessica Brunk).

Sharon Tucker, Archivist for the Alabama West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and Huntingdon College Special Collections, proposed the idea of the contest to promote the interesting items that can be found in the Archives Center and Houghton Memorial Library. The objective of the contest was to create an interest for the students in developing their creative and research abilities, as well as to encourage students to interact with the college archivist, librarians, and their instructors.

Their winning cases are displayed at the Houghton Memorial Library. Check out the pictures of the two displays below. Again, congratulations to Katie Cox and Jessica Brunk!

01/09/2020

The contribution of personal papers to the Methodist Archives Center

On January 6, 2020, the Methodist Archives Center was honored to welcome Bishop Kenneth H. Carter, Jr., the bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, who graciously donated his personal papers (about 100 documents) regarding the Commission on the Way Forward. Bishop Carter served as the moderator for the Commission on the Way Forward, which was presented at the 2019 General Conference. He now serves as president of the Council of Bishops as we head toward the 2020 General Conference. When asked about his donation, Bishop Carter stated that “I was honored to contribute these documents to Huntingdon College, which is a college of and for the church.”

The documents Bishop Carter presented are both public and private and they “provide both material evidence and clues to those with an interest in a church seeking to be faithful to its mission in a time of deep change.” They also include “detailed planning agendas of the Commission on a Way Forward, reflections on questions related to that work, correspondence with bishops, activists, theologians, and with members of our church all across the spectrum, and sermons to the Council of Bishops and the General Conference. They express the breadth, diversity, anxiety and chaotic spirit-led nature of our church in this season.”

We would like to say thank you to Bishop Carter, as well as Dr. Cam West, for choosing to donate these documents to the Methodist Archives Center. It is a privilege for us to include these significant papers in our archives.

In the picture, Sharon Tucker, the AWFC Archivist is surrounded by the Huntingdon College President, Dr. Cam West; Bishop David Graves, the Alabama West Florida Conference bishop; Bishop Paul Leeland, the Western North Carolina Conference bishop; and Bishop Kenneth Carter, the Florida Conference bishop.