Report of the

Historical Committee

            Milestones are stones that mark the miles. If you were journeying along a road, milestones showed how far you had come. Some milestones passed in the work of the Historical Committee for 2005 were:

            3000 – catalogued items in our collection of documents, books, records and the like.

            1500 – photographs in storage, catalogued and indexed in computer files.

            700 – files available on our website.

            These milestones show how far we have come. The archives started with a few minute books rescued from an attic in Allentown. Years later, the growing collection documents the story of the Evangelical Mennonites / Evangelical United Mennonites / Mennonite Brethren In Christ / Bible Fellowship Church. Is the story important? Certainly not to many who don’t know or appreciate the BFC. But to the many of us who have been brought to faith and nurtured in the Christian life as a part of this church, it is a very important story. This church, with its unique history, distinct understandings and commitment to biblical truth, has shaped us and has been used by God in our lives and is being used in the lives of people in many communities.

            The story of our past offers clues to who we are becoming, what we will be like and our place in doing God’s work. This story does not invite us to live in the past but rather to go boldly into the future to do a work that understands and celebrates the faithfulness of God. This story does not beckon us to enjoy nostalgia but to build on a heritage of faithful service as we seek fervently to be God’s servants in a new and changing world. The story of our past is just the prelude to our future.

            The Historical Committee continues to serve in the conviction that gathering and preserving the materials that give light to our past is a very important task. We are glad for those who have donated their records, photographs and other items for storage in the archives located in Wallingford. We encourage you to continue to place your valuable historical material in the archives for safe keeping and preservation.

More milestones events:

            The Historical Committee received nearly $3,000 in memorial gifts as a result of mailings to the Historical Society. We are grateful for this response. We were able to purchase 3 additional fire resistant cabinets which are already being filled with our irreplaceable materials. In the future, we hope to receive further gifts which will be needed to maintain and expand our archival collection.

            The Historical Committee has accepted the kind invitation of Fellowship Community to place its collection there for safe keeping. While the transfer will not take place for several years, the facilities being prepared at Fellowship Community will include a space to store and maintain our archives. We are grateful for this provision which will insure the availability of the collection for those who wish to know the story of the BFC.

            We are also grateful to the Board of Directors for having the vision and commitment to include an allowance of $1,000 in the Administrative Budget in the past years. This annual provision has been of great benefit over the years.

            We end this report by repeating our encouragement to you to place historically relevant records, photographs, and documents in the archives so that they might be available to the generations who will follow us.

Historical Committee: Jill Davidson, Chairperson; Richard E. Taylor, Secretary and Archivist; Carl C. Cassel, Harold P. Shelly, Robert W. Smock, James A. Beil.