Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
Care and Custody of Church Records
One of the important responsibilities which the Church of Ireland has inherited is to care properly for a considerable body of archival material which details not only the life of the Church but also of the wider Irish society with which it interacted. This responsibility has been discharged largely by equipping the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin with appropriate accommodation in which to safely store church records, trained staff to catalogue them, and reading rooms in which they can be consulted.
Since 1981 the Representative Church Body has been continuously investing in its archival responsibilities and if this commitment has not always received the public recognition which it is due, there is, at least, a growing acceptance that in this aspect of the Church's cultural affairs the RCB is acquitting itself well. The Library now holds records from 685 parishes, 17 dioceses, 17 cathedrals, the non-current records of the General Synod, RCB and their committees and commissions, as well as 636 collections of manuscripts which relate to many aspects of the life and witness of the Church of Ireland.
That this is not a sterile or self indulgent activity is clear from the growing body of publications based on the collections. These are adding to our knowledge about the Church in Ireland and how it has developed. The publication of the history of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, earlier this year, provided the most graphic illustration of the scholarly uses to which the archives of the Church can be put. At the other end of the scale, the recent upsurge of interest in local history has produced greater curiosity about the Church of Ireland than ever before. Records of our parishes, churches and rectories are eagerly sought by a growing band of enthusiasts who wish to know more about the communities in which they live.
In many instances such enquiries, together with the seemingly insatiable desire for genealogical information, bring people into contact with the Church of Ireland for the first time. They offer unrivalled opportunities for a minority Church to explain itself and to share its considerable inheritance.
However, despite the progress of the last twenty years, much remains to be done to secure the archival heritage of the Church of Ireland, and to this end a millennium initiative has been agreed. The Executive Committee of the RCB has endorsed a proposal from the Library and Archives Committee that all registers of baptisms and burials should be closed at the end of the year 2000 and new registers opened. As registers of marriages are civil records they are outside the scope of this initiative.
Many parishes are still using registers which are up to 100 years old, indeed sometimes older, and it is not good for the physical preservation of records to be in current use for so long. The RCB hopes that parishes will transfer their non-current registers and all other non-current records to the RCB Library where they can be safely stored, catalogued, and, as appropriate, made available for historical research.
Tomorrow (Sunday), in Dublin, the services in Christ Church Cathedral will be sung by the choir of the Thomas Hardy School. In St Patrick's Cathedral, at evensong, Senator David Norris will give the seventh address in the series "Hopes for the New Millennium". Senator Norris, who is a member of the Cathedral congregation is well known as a Joycean scholar, urban conservationist, gay rights campaigner and as a most accomplished public speaker.
In St Barrahane's Church, Castletownshend, Co. Cork, on Thursday evening the recital in the Festival of Classical Music will be given by Sonya Keogh (mezzo soprano) and Julian Milford (piano).