Dear Folks,
The following people and institutions have a great deal in common: First Baptist Brandon, First Baptist Vancouver, Colleen Schneider, The Royal Albert Laundry, and the current film called “The King’s Speech”. Let me begin to explain why and hope that it motivates us all.
First Baptist Brandon celebrated its 125th anniversary last year on November 14th, and had the most amazing series of celebrations, which included a most unusual series of displays done by Maria Egilsson, that explained the history of the church. This particular presentation was a model for how to celebrate the faithfulness of God in the context of an anniversary celebration.
The second example of a long, faithful chronicling of God’s story is the story of First Baptist Church Vancouver which celebrates its 125th anniversary in June this year, having celebrated last year the 100th anniversary of its building at Nelson and Burrard Streets. I take note of FBC Vancouver, partly because 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of my connection with this church (my father was the senior minister in 1970, I was on staff in the 80’s), but also because it’s inspiring archivist Rick Stevenson passed away this past year. The current archivist is Tim Cunningham. FBC Vancouver has developed not only good anecdotal records, but has a history of technical competence in the storage and cataloguing of documents.
Colleen Schneider, who is our Calgary office manager, has been working since 2009 developing a wonderful competency and culture for church archival creation in the Calgary office and in the handling of the historical material that has come out West from McMaster. Colleen will be able to point you in the right direction for any and all of your archival needs. “Archival needs” sounds so dry; but what we are talking about here is, in fact, the recollecting of the faithfulness of God and God’s story in and through his people.
On a last and lighter note, the story of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s father, as portrayed in the King’s Speech, brought back some family memories for me. My great, great grandmother, whose last name was Barrow, on my mother’s side, started the Royal Albert Laundry at the time of Queen Victoria in Windsor, England. The tradition was continued by my great grandmother and ceased when she ceded the large laundry plant to the Queen mother in the middle of the Second World War, to be converted into a wartime hospital for the injured. I am part way through an article which begins with the words “my ancestors knew how to deal with the dirty laundry of the house of Windsor…they washed it in private”. (My father has often asked me why I wanted to write such a story – I won’t bore you with the reasons here –it’s just a quaint story.) I must admit that when I watched Colin Firth who played King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter who played Queen Elizabeth, I thought, “nice threads, well pressed”!
We keep these quaint family stories to ourselves most of the time, but we should never keep God’s story in the larger body of Christ hidden away for there is much to see, much to tell and even more to look forward to in the years ahead.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy