When we left for vacation, I locked my computer screen, expecting to pick up where I left off upon my return. I came back to work expectantly, only to find that my usual username and password led me to a new desktop with no connection to my former files or device identity. To my consternation, thousands of photos, scans, data files, spreadsheets, and program credentials had apparently disappeared, and I felt the loss keenly. I knew some things that were missing, and that worried me plenty, but even worse was not knowing what I didn’t know was lost “in the void.” Thinking about having to work without the benefit of the knowledge and records from the past suddenly made my tasks look very much harder.
People and congregations and documents with stories to tell!
My identity as a user on my computer is (in some ways!) a small thing, certainly much less important than our identity as followers of Jesus or members of our local congregations and the network our congregations form. What I see as common between these two levels of identity is the helpfulness of knowing something about the history of people like us. People who took the trouble to write down or preach the answers they found to questions that might be coming back around. Or to questions that amaze us because we’ve never even entertained them. People who fought battles like ours, some winningly and some not so much.
People and congregations and documents with stories to tell! This is why Rosedale Network of Churches has, for decades, been appointing a historian/archivist and a committee to oversee the work. It is why that committee worked to get two conference histories printed. Both are now available from the conference office.
The first history was written by the son of a charter member of the conference, a pastor who, along with his wife, had personal memories of many of the first leaders. It was finished in time for the 75th anniversary in 1985, and is the authorized History of the Conservative Mennonite Conference 1910-1985, by Ivan J. Miller. The opening chapters are a brief survey narrative, but the bulk of the pages are a review of congregations and leaders, with many accompanying pictures. This history is available for the cost of shipping.
The most recent history was published to recognize and reflect on the first 100 years of what we now call Rosedale Network. Author Nathan Yoder was a professor of church history and was able to include Together in the Work of the Lord as a volume in the Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History series published by Herald Press. This history is available for $10, shipping included.
As the current historian/archivist, I curate a collection that includes personal papers from some leaders, audio tapes that we have digitized, conference reports, congregational histories, records from our college and our missions organization, and artifacts like a tin cup and spoon that were used for an upstate New York summer conference. If you have items of interest, send them to us!
I get occasional requests for information, but for the most part, the treasure that is our collection sits in the archives room, silent and waiting, hidden away in its locked, climate-controlled, fireproof enclosure.
Hidden, that is, until the conference office decided to publish a “From the Archives” item each month in the Beacon. It won’t generally be a feature article, but a smattering of much shorter reminders that we are not the first to share identity as members of this network of churches. Sometimes it will be a description with a link to an audio file. Sometimes it might be a photo and vignette about a former leader and/or spouse. There are many stories from the Missionary Bulletin and the Brotherhood Beacon, some of them with pictures!
That’s what we have in mind. Just a little here and a little there, so our archives can help give you a smile or a thought, or a memory. Watch for it. We hope you will enjoy!
Oh, and for those who wondered, the network administrator used his powers to help me find my files. We’re still working—bit by bit—on the credential/identity piece.
Photo credit: AI-generated
One Response
So glad you’re doing this! I think it will help us feel a greater sense of “rootedness”–a greater understanding of the fact that times change, but people don’t. We keep seeing the same problems, and opportunities–just in different guises.