[Office of Public Affairs]  The Archives of the Episcopal Church has been awarded a $20,900 grant for the development of an archive and online digital exhibit focusing on the 23rd presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. John Maury Allin.

The award was bestowed by the John Maury Allin Foundation, the Episcopal Church.

According to Mark Duffy, director of the Episcopal Church Archives located in Austin, Texas, the funds will be used to organize the 36 cubic feet of personal papers and archives donated by the family of Bishop Allin, including biographical material from his early parish ministry and as bishop of Mississippi.

“The materials, covering the period 1931–1998, are a wealth of correspondence with church and governmental figures, sermons and addresses, audio and video recordings, photo images, and artifacts,” Duffy explained.  “The funds will support a gathering of material that may exist undiscovered in parish archives.”

The award contains funding for the creation of an innovative online presence focusing on Allin’s ideas, conversations, and era of leadership. During Allin’s administration, the Venture in Mission program was launched and implemented, and is credited as the most successful fundraising campaign in the church’s history and one that spawned many hundreds of local, regional, and international ministries and programs of the Episcopal Church.  Many of these programs funneled resources to community and church programs that addressed grass roots solutions to domestic poverty, racial injustice, urban and rural educational divides, and reform of foreign mission in a post-colonial age.

Duffy also said that the Allin Project will document these immense historical changes through a figure whose personal style of ministry could build consensus and soften the areas of controversy that swirled around the struggle for women’s ordination and other pressing reforms.

The grant will also make possible the creation of an online publication to serve as a template to model additional sites reflecting other presiding bishops’ ministries. The model will include a variety of materials, including scanned documents and photos, digitized audio and video materials, time lines and narratives, and a digital space for users to add their thoughts and reflections.

The Archives of the Episcopal Church is the official repository for the records of the Episcopal Church including its synodical body, the General Convention, and the corporate body of the church, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society and personal papers of key leadership. The Archives seeks to honor the community’s diversity, educate all members for ministry, and communicate the faith within the mission priorities as established by the Church’s General Convention.

For more information contact Duffy at research@episcopalarchives.org.