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Congregational Board of Pastoral Supply
Congregational Board of Pastoral Supply
Records, 1894-1974 (bulk)
RG 0693
22 boxes
Reprocessed March 2009 by Jessica Steytler
Historical Note
Established in 1894 by the Congregational Conference of Massachusetts, the Board gathered discriminating reports concerning a large majority of the Congregational ministers in the United States by the 1920s. The Board was established primarily to supply pastors to Massachusetts churches; ca. 1910s this service was in demand by churches outside of Massachusetts in the New England states. In 1915 the by-laws were amended to accommodate this change; the area of service was gradually enlarged to include New York, mid-Atlantic, eastern Pennsylvania and Florida; during the 1930s the Board began providing pastors to Congregational and Christian churches. In 1966 the area served was reduced to the New England Conferences and New York Conference. The Board encountered financial difficulties ca. 1947 and Dr. Horace F. Holton, executive secretary from 1943-1950, took out a personal note to meet the Board's current expenses. In 1974 the Board voted an interim operation from 1974-1976 with reduced staff and services. The collection represents the first three secretaries of the Board: Charles B. Rice, Arthur J. Covell, and Charles C. Merrill.
Scope and Content
This collection is made up of very few series, despite its overall size.
| Series 1: Executive Records, 1895-1974. Boxes 1-3 | ||
| Executive Committee minutes, 1893-1972; Advisers' minutes, 1917-1933; treasurer's records, 1949-1964; office expenses, 1916-1963; Executive Secretary's record book, 1961-1972; correspondence; Arthur Covell papers, 1913-1933; reports, 1895-1975. | ||
| Series 2: Ministers' files: | ||
| All these files share similar traits. Originally, each person had their own folder, however for practical reasons, they are now compacted to include multiple people per folder. The earliest date for these files is difficult to determine, as it is dependent on when the minister's career was started. Most don't go back past 1910s. The ones with the oldest files include the retired and deceased sections. | ||
| Subseries A: Active. Boxes 4-14 | ||
| This collection of files include the ministers still working for the United Church of Christ in 1974 when the Pastoral Supply Board office closed. | ||
| An interesting piece of meta information was that the original folder would sometimes indicate that the minister was “negro.” The time span for when these folders were created date back to the early 1900s in some cases, so this office was operating - 1895 until 1974, for the majority of its institutional life with segregation. The unofficial statistics for race representation must have been necessary, given the conferences were segregated, too. However, race designations were not maintained in this guide. | ||
| The original folders also included hand-written abbreviations for states/conferences. These were transcribed. There is no reliable key for all the abbreviations. Despite this key, almost all ministers were assigned outside the state/conference indicated. | ||
| Sub-Series B: Retired. Boxes 15-23 | ||
| Sub-Series C: Left the denomination. Box 23 | ||
| This collection spans the formation of the Congregational Christian denomination, the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC), the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC), and the United Church of Christ (UCC). The majority of the ministers who left the original denomination moved to the NACCC and CCCC, although there would certainly be some who would have also left Congregational-based denominations. Unfortunately, the files do not elaborate on where they went. | ||
| Sub-Series D: Interim. Box 23 | ||
| These files did not have any meta information indicating these were interim ministers, however it was determined through context clues. | ||
| Sub-Series E: Deceased. Boxes 24-26 | ||
Table of Contents
| Series 1: Executive Records | ||||
| Series 2: Ministers' Files |
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| Sub-series A: Active | ||||
| Box 4: A-Bal | Box 5: Ban-Cat | Box 6: Ce-E | ||
| Box 7: F-Ha | Box 8: He-Kh | Box 9: Ki-Mal | ||
| Box 10: Man-P | Box 11: Q-Sh | Box 12: Si-V | ||
| Box 13: W-Wilsh | Box 14: Wilso-Z | |||
| Sub-series B: Retired | ||||
| Box 15: A-Christe | Box 16: Christi-E | Box 17: F-Has | ||
| Box 18: Hay-Kim | Box 19: Kin-Mea | Box 20: Mec-Penn | ||
| Box 21: Penner-Sne | Box 22: Sni-War | Box 23: Wat-Z | ||
| Sub-series C: Left the Denomination | ||||
| Sub-series D: Interim | ||||
| Sub-series E: Deceased | ||||
| Box 24: A-Hart | Box 25: Hartm-R | Box 26: S-Z | ||
Box List