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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

Visions of Unity: Dissecting the Closing Speech of the 1st Covenant Network Conference

September 7, 2022

Becoming the Body—this is the title of the speech John Buchanan presented to the audience of the first annual conference hosted by the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.

Hosted in Denver, Colorado, the weekend of November 5, 1998, this conference was organized in response to the failure of Amendment A to be passed at that year’s General Assembly. The theme of this monumental first meeting was “Living Faithfully in the Church When We Disagree.”

This theme reflected the worries of Presbyterians in relation to the...

Author: 
McKenna
Tags: 
LGBTQIA+ History, Collections
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RECOVERED: The Life and Work of Miss Julia N. Crosby

August 29, 2022

It is 1917.

A crowd has gathered in Yokohama to watch a special ceremony take place. They wait with bated breath as an elderly woman, seated in an armchair, decorated for this special event, is carried on the shoulders of four men.

She approaches the office of the Governor of the Japanese prefecture. Governor Ariyoshi, speaking with the voice of Emperor Taishō, bestows upon the woman a medal.

Miss Julia N. Crosby, an eighty-five-year-old New Yorker, is gifted with a Blue Ribbon in the name of the Emperor, an honor seldom accorded.

A century later, a Presbyterian...

Author: 
McKenna
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Past PHS LIVE: Sanctuary and Accompaniment

August 19, 2022

In the Sanctuary movement of the 1980s, American churches challenged the authority of the federal government by sheltering Central Americans who fled civil war and paramilitary death squads.

On August 18, PHS staff welcomed a number of individuals into a discussion about the Sanctuary movement. Speakers included Presbyterian Sanctuary workers Rev. John Fife and Mary Ann Lundy; Patty Barcelo, who fled Guatemala with her family as a child in the 1980s; and Amanda Craft, Manager of Immigration Advocacy at the Office of the General Assembly.

The group spoke about the power of the...

Author: 
McKenna
Tags: 
Refugees, Sanctuary, PHS Live
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The Search for "Middle Ground" Amidst Dissent: Covenant Network Records

August 16, 2022

While exploring PHS’s RG 531, an archival collection consisting of the records of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, I came across a plethora of documents that embodied some intense emotions. In the fight for LGBTQ ordination rites, there were many strong opinions held—on both sides.

One of the first things I stumbled upon was a piece of correspondence dated January 9, 1998, addressed to the Elder...

Author: 
McKenna
Tags: 
LGBTQIA+ History, Collections
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PHS Welcomes New Staff

August 15, 2022

The Presbyterian Historical Society is pleased to welcome a new staff member this month.

Elaine Shilstut will be joining the PHS staff as our Cataloging and Metadata Librarian.

Elaine comes to PHS from the University of Pennyslvania Libraries, where she worked as a Library Specialist in the Cataloging Department. In this position, she performed original and complex copy cataloging including authority work for various formats. She also managed the Penn dissertations workflow, supervised cataloging students, and trained paraprofessional staff. Elaine holds an MS in Library and...

Author: 
McKenna
Tags: 
Staff, News and Events
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