Our Effect

General Commission on Archives & History Remembers
'A Goodly Heritage'

Two girls from Arkansas were writing a paper on women in Methodist history for a school project.  They called the General Commission on Archives and History (GCAH) for help.  The staff provided audio clips, photos, and text concerning the history of granting full clergy rights for women.

After Hurricane Katrina, a man who had donated family papers to the African American Methodist Heritage Center, housed at our Archives Center, contacted GCAH to recover copies of precious papers he had lost.

Memory is precious.  Each of us saves photos and letters.  On a broader scale, the GCAH does the same thing.  We collect, preserve, use and interpret records, documents, photos, CDs, audio clips, DVDs, conference minutes and periodicals.  This ministry is made possible by your contributions to the General Administration Fund.

The GCAH is located in the Methodist Archives and History Center on the campus of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.  This remarkable partnership creates the most complete research center on global Methodism in the world.

Thanks to your generosity, we:

• Receive and process more than 100 cubic feet of manuscript material each year;
• Answer almost 1,000 research requests annually;
• Maintain a Web site for researchers around the world;
• Assist and support Annual Conference, Jurisdictional, and Central Conference Commissions on Archives and History;
• Partner with others to tell stories of faith;
• Work to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

The "ministry of memory" shapes us, informs and inspires our mission, and creates a vision for discipleship.  Thank you for your part in this ministry as, together, we declare with the Psalmist: "I have a goodly heritage" (Psalm 16:6b, NRSV).

Sincerely,
The Rev. Dr. Robert J. Williams, General Secretary
General Commission on Archives and History