We find our roots in history and from these roots spring forth new growth, new ideas, and new directions.  –James Seale, 1983, from his first editorial for Discipliana

When we recently received the sad news of the passing of Dr. James Seale, President Emeritus of Disciples of Christ Historical Society, several aspects of his continuing legacy to the cause of Stone-Campbell heritage came immediately to mind.  As noted in the Declaration of Honor from the DCHS Board of Trustees in 1997, “James Seale was a called-out leader who in turn called out to his church to renew a portion of its ecumenical vision and commitment.  His calling, both received and sent forth, was grounded in caring.  [The presidency of Disciples of Christ Historical Society]…was his highest calling and through it he called the church to be informed by the best of its heritage.”

One of Jim Seale’s most lasting contributions is his history of the Society: Forward from the Past: The First Fifty Years of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society (Nashville, DCHS, 1991).  In this book he traces the origins of the Society from the early vision of the founders through the extensive collecting efforts of librarian Claude Spencer and historian Eva Jean Wrather, J. Edward Moseley, Jr. and others through the struggles to gain sufficient funding for a “national archives” of Stone-Campbell collections, the design and construction of the grand Thomas W. Phillips Memorial Archives building, to implementing increasingly sophisticated means of gaining intellectual control over and describing the mass of documents, books, pamphlets, and periodicals that were collected for the archives.

The study of the study of history, or metahistory as it is now called, has become an increasingly popular area of exploration among professional historians in the last couple of decades, and Forward from the Past presents an excellent example of that kind of history.  In this work Seale provided both a traditional institutional history as well as a more discerning picture of the challenges inherent in preserving the history of three separate, though related, churches, the “three streams” of the Stone-Campbell heritage.  Even though the Society is now approaching its 70th anniversary, Forward from the Past still makes good, useful reading.

In several public venues, Jim Seale revealed his deep thinking on the uses and importance of history.  In “A Perspective on History” (1988) he demonstrated his kinship to the ancient writers of scripture as he imparted the necessity of knowing our own history:  “Far too often, when we consider history, we think only of the length of our own memories, or perhaps the memories of our parents and grandparents.  We live almost as if nothing went on prior to that time.  Yet the more we learn about our human bodies, our culture, our world, the more we realize how closely tied we are to a much longer history than two or three generations.”

He also knew that the mission of the Historical Society was absolutely vital in acquiring that knowledge.  In 1987 he wrote:  “The history of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is not found in the dry bones of past events but the life-producing seeds planted by men and women whose vision created a multitude of ministries….Today’s records will form an important link in our history for another generation of Disciples who will discover their religious heritage in our ministries.  Without these and other materials, the link between the past and the future will be broken.”

Jim Seale certainly had no objection to antiquarian interests in church history, history for history’s sake, but he saw history as having a more utilitarian, even urgent, use, in playing its vital role in the life of the church and in civilization…and that is why we think of Jim Seale as history’s historian.

Forward from the Past: The First Fifty Years of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society is available for purchase in our online bookstore.

Sara Harwell     8/30/2010

Disciples of Christ Historical Society was a vital presence at the 2010 Quadrennial Assembly in Greensboro.  Starting with the booth display, we had many enthusiastic visitors and had good conversations with them about our mission and work.  The theme this year was our upcoming online course, Educating Disciples Women: Empowerment through Knowledge and Community.

Barbara Bekaert of Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Murfreesboro, Julia Keith of the World Convention, Sara, and Kaye Edwards of Disciples Home Missions’ Family and Children’s Ministries enjoy the opening lunch together.

Workshop

Ruby Henry, Disciples lay leader, served as the hostess for the DCHS workshop, Educating Disciples Women.

We had a great audience for the workshop with much discussion after the PowerPoint presentation.

Sara and Ruby, Workshop Leaders

Exhibitors

California Disciple Sherri Cline was one of many who dropped by the DCHS booth for a visit.

Deborah Brown of Colores del Pueblo was one of our friendly neighbors in the exhibit area.

Mollie Renfrow, owner of the Cedar Chest, was also one of our wonderful next door exhibit neighbors.  One of the pleasures of Quadrennial is getting to know other exhibitors (and sometimes buying their wares).

Julia Keith and Darlene Bowman show the beautiful jewelry featured at the World Convention booth.

Worship

A visual aid: shaped notes for the Sacred Harp singing featured in the historic worship service led by the Historical Society.

Jo Ann Chance, one of the coordinators of the worship experience sessions.

Sacred Harp singing: the alto section, the alto and bass sections, and the tenor section.

Historic worship leaders Julia Keith, DCHS board member Wanda Hedenberg, DCHS staff members Sharman Hartson and Sara Harwell.  The worship service was a wonderful opportunity to praise God and honor our ancestors in the faith. 

The whole experience made me wish Disciples Women met more often than every four years.  Until then, we have our happy memories.

Sara Harwell     7/1/2010

 

Awake! Awake! is the theme of this 41st Quadrennial Assembly of Disciples Women, June 23-27 in Greensboro, North Carolina.  For more than 50 years, Disciples women have been gathering for worship, study, and mission.  We encourage attendees to drop by the Historical Society’s booth in the exhibit hall to visit and learn more about our mission and work.

Historical Society staff members will be leading both a workshop and a worship service at Quadrennial.  In addition, registration will open for the Society’s first online class, Educating Disciples Women: Empowerment through Knowledge and Community.  Beginning in October, this 6-week course will explore the various ways Disciples women gained an education in the 19th and early 20th centuries and went on to become leaders in church and society.  Attendees at Quadrennial Assembly will receive a 20% discount off the regular course registration fee of $50.00.

Historical Society events at Quadrennial include:

Educating Disciples Women: Empowerment through Knowledge and Community

Thursday, 1:45-3:15 pm

In this workshop, we’ll explore what ‘Knowledge is Power’ meant to Disciples of Christ women in the 19th and early 20th centuries as they struggled for educational opportunities.  We’ll look at the influences that created the early educational institutions for women, compare the women’s curriculum to those of the male academies of the same period, explore community relationships and friendships that developed and examine the blossoming empowerment of Disciples women in their churches and the world.  Included will be a preview of this fall’s online course.

Sacred Song: A Psalmist Heart Worship Experience

Saturday, 3:45-5:00 pm

Sacred Harp is an ecumenical community music tradition originating in the colonial Northeast and then later in the rural South.  Saturday’s worship is for those who crave harmonies and the blessing of music.  We emphasize participation – not necessarily singing skill – and all voices will sing together.  Copies of hymns will provided to participants.

For more information about the assembly, visit the Quadrennial website.

Sara Harwell     6/20/2010

John Caldwell

 The Cannon-Benoit Intern for 2010 is John Caldwell, a student at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  John is majoring in both History and French, and has been spending the last couple of weeks at the Historical Society learning basic archival practices by doing them.

John’s main project has been the arrangement and description of the personal papers of 19th-early 20th century preacher Daniel Sommer.  Sommer (1850-1940) was an important figure in the second generation of the Stone-Campbell group of preachers and editors.  He is remembered today as a leader of the conservative group that eventually left the Christian Church to form the Churches of Christ.  The split between the two churches became official with the completion of the 1906 U.S. Religious Census that named the Churches of Christ for the first time.

Among John’s other activities during his internship has been learning to do research in archives in order to respond to patrons’ questions on congregations, ministers, and other information on Stone-Campbell heritage. 

John is a fine young scholar and has done wonderful work while at the Society.  We trust he has benefitted from spending time with the Society’s staff and rich collections.

The Cannon-Benoit Internship, established and funded in 2002 by Weldon Cannon and Patricia Benoit of Temple, Texas, provides students of Stone-Campbell heritage with an opportunity to come to the Society and learn more about its mission and work while completing a project that is vital to Stone-Campbell history.  For more information please contact the Society at mail@discipleshistory.org.

Sara Harwell       6/17/2010

Cane Ridge Meeting House Memorial Building

Cane Ridge Day 2010 will be held at the Cane Ridge Meeting House near Paris, Kentucky on Saturday, June 19.  Several interesting sessions are scheduled:

In the morning Cane Ridge Curator James Trader II will speak on ” Barton Warren Stone: Concord and Concordance” on Stone’s years as minister at the Cane Ridge and Concord churches.  His presentation will also include discussion of Barton Stone’s opposition to slavery.

Jane Johnson, organist at Crestwood Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky will play some selections from her new CD of Reed Organ Music recorded at the Cane Ridge Meeting House.

Lunchtime entertainment will be provided by the Backroom Bluegrass Band.  You can bring a picnic lunch to enjoy while you listen to the music.  Cold beverages will be available for sale. 

In the afternoon David Alexander, former Regional Minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Georgia, will speak on “Memories of Concord,” in which he will share his reminiscences on his childhood at his grandfather’s farm near the Concord Church. 

For more information, please call 859-987-5340.  A map to the Cane Ridge Meeting House is provided at the Kentucky Calendar.

Sara Harwell        6/8/2010

Now the bad news: You may know that we have been impossible to reach since last Sunday. Our website is down, our email isn’t working, nor is our telephone service due to the power outage resulting from the flood.

At this time, a new transformer has been installed for our building, and electricity is now back on. We hope to have our communications (therefore our telephone, email, and website services) restored by Monday, May 10.

We apologize for the inconvenience and will be back in touch soon.

Thanks for your patience,

Sara Harwell
5/8/2010

Tour participants will visit the sites where these beautiful hymns were composed: ‘Amazing Grace’ – ‘Rock of Ages’ – ‘Abide With Me’ – ‘ Joy to the World’ – ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ – ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ – ‘Take My Life and Let It Be’ – ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ – ‘Blest Be the Tie.’ Providing a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Ray Walker of the Jordanaires will be on hand to lead the group in singing these beloved songs.

The deadline is Monday, May 10, so don’t miss this great opportunity. More information and photos can be viewed on Lipscomb’s website at: http://alumni.lipscomb.edu/s/724/index.aspx?sid=724&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=1409&ecid=1409&crid=0&calpgid=13&calcid=957.

Contact: Amy Hamar, Office of Alumni & Parent Relations, Lipscomb University, 800-333-4358 x6216 or amy.hamar@lipscomb.edu.

As followers of 19th-century Disciples minister George Darsie tweets know, Bro. Darsie has been sharing entries from his 1884 diary since mid-August.  For the new year, he is moving ahead almost a decade to 1893.  He is still the faithful minister for the Christian Church in Frankfort, Kentucky, he is still married to Coranelle, and, in many ways, life continues much as before. 

But 1893 was a momentous year in America, and, though people and communities were more isolated in those days, George Darsie was a man engaged with public affairs as well as spiritual ones.  1893 brought the worst economic depression the nation was to experience until the 1930s.  In addition, Chicago opened the spectacular ‘White City’ — officially the World’s Columbian Exposition, celebrating (a year late) the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World. 

Popularly known as the Chicago World’s Fair, the Exposition played host to the annual meeting of the American Historical Association at which historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented ‘The Significanace of the Frontier in American History,’ in which he boldly set his thesis both that the frontier had shaped the American character and that the frontier era was over.  Turner’s ‘frontier thesis’ is still discussed and debated in graduate seminars across the country. 

The World Parliament of Religions also held its first meeting at the Chicago World’s Fair.  An 18-day event, the parliament drew scholars and clergy from all over the world and from all the world’s known religious traditions in an effort to increase understanding and tolerance.  Said Dr. Alexander Kohut of New York: ‘The scions of many creeds are convened at Chicago’s succoring parliament of religions, aglow with enthusiasm, imbued with the courage of expiring fear, electrified with the absorbing anticipation of dawning light.  The hour has struck.’

 It should be interesting to discover the extent to which these events are reflected in George Darsie’s diary.  We know that his diary for 1893 will reveal the life and routines of a preacher of his day, absorbed with matters great and small, always devoted to his ministry in late 19th-century Frankfort, Kentucky.

More 1893 Milestones:

 Thomas Edison opened the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

 The Duryea brothers drove the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America in Springfield, Massachusetts.

 Rudolf Diesel received a patent for the diesel engine.

 Mahatma Gandhi committed his first act of civil disobedience in India.

Sara Harwell     1/28/2010

When we think of a 19th century Christmas we generally are reminded of the convergence of writings and events that influenced or even established so many of the traditions and customs we still practice today – 

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (readings of which were recently given by his great great grandson Gerald Charles Dickens at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York) —  

Clement Moore’s ‘A Night Before Christmas’ –

Prince Albert introducing the Christmas tree to Queen Victoria’s court from his native Germany. 

Even Washington Irving’s comic essays ‘Christmas Eve’ and ‘Christmas Day’ – both very popular in their day if not as well remembered now — were influential in how Victorians came to perceive a ‘traditional’ Christmas with Irving’s colorful descriptions of coach rides through the English countryside, decorating, games, parties, church services, Christmas dinner, and cozy chats by the fireside of an ancient English manor.  Such evocative descriptions led British and Americans both to emulate these inviting scenes and customs.

Such holiday practices were not lost on Disciples minister George Darsie of First Christian Church in 1884 Frankfort, Kentucky. His diary entries — now being entered as tweets at  www.twitter.com/GeorgeDarsie — reveal his knowledge and embrace of 19th century popular customs: riding his horse Charley out to the country to find a Christmas tree for his Sunday School class, shopping for toys and candy in Louisville, ice skating, reading Dickens by the fire, and more.  At the same time, his usual routines and duties remained in place: preparing sermons, preaching funerals, visiting the sick, and treating his dog for mange. Celebrate Christmas with Brother Darsie on Twitter and experience the rich, full life of a Disciples minister over a century ago.

From Disciples of Christ Historical Society — have a peaceful happy holiday season.

Sara Harwell          12/23/2009

On Thursday and Friday, November 5-6, the DCHS Board of Trustees met at the Thomas W. Phillips Memorial Archives.  In committee and plenary sessions, individually and collectively, they offered leadership and wisdom for the fulfillment of the Society’s misssion. 

Among the highlights of this years meeting were: 

◊  A presentation by Christian Board of Publication/Chalice Press president Cyrus N. White on the challenges and prospects facing religious publishing in the 21^st century.

◊  A delicious dinner at Lipscomb University Center for Spiritual Formation at Longview, a splendid antebellum mansion in South Nashville, accompanied by a presentation by Dr. Carl McKelvey on the Center’s ministry.

◊  A wonderful performance by guitarist Josh Philpott, son of DCHS Curator Elaine Philpott.

◊  A presentation and hands-on activity featuring several of the Society’s artifacts selected by Director of Research Services Mac Ice for the occasion (pictured above and below).

Many thanks to our dedicated Board for helping us keep our promise.

Sara Harwell       11/18/2009