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Visit Us
In Person or Online!
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www.CongregationalLibrary.org
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Find out about our collections and what's happening at the Library by checking out our blog,
Beacon Street Journal.
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Scott Couper, biographer Albert Luthuli
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to Someone Special
or to Yourself!
Call 617-523-0470
ext. 230
or email info@14beacon.org
for more info
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Since 2000, the Congregational Library and Archives has provided 53 students in the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) with internships in Archives, Records Management, and Librarianship. Working under the supervision of a professional archivist or librarian here, the students gain hands-on experience that is transferable to their chosen careers.
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Giving Back With Focus
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Volunteer Spotlight: Margaret Marnie Warner
Marnie Warner, one of four co-authors of the Open and Affirming resolution in the UCC, has a passion for learning. As a young girl in Bethel Connecticut, Marnie was active in her UCC church, attending Sunday school and summer camp at Silver Lake Conference Center. As a fifth generation family member to attend this church, Marnie remembers her great aunt Minnie Carter who was sent from the church as a missionary to Inadana School for Girls in South Africa. Marnie would visit South Africa many years later.
After earning a BA degree from Beloit College, Marnie moved to Boston and pursued her MLS in Library Science from Simmons College. Boston is also where she found her spiritual home within the UCC. In the early 1980's Marnie served on the Metropolitan Boston Association's Committee on Ministry. She was chosen as a delegate from the Massachusetts Conference to the 1983 and 1985 General Synods which is where the Opening and Affirming story unfolded. Over the years Marnie devoted her time and talents to Conference activities.
During her professional career as a Law Librarian, Marnie was involved with the Access to Justice Commission and she worked for the Trial Court overseeing and developing the services of 17 public libraries that serve the Court, the legal community, and the public.
Fast forward to 2012 when Marnie found herself on the campus of Elmhurst College attending a conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of the UCC Coalition. While attending the conference, Marnie discovered that the notes and records from the original conference, held in 1972, were stored at the Congregational Library in Boston. Back in Boston, Marnie pondered how she might use her skills to review and organize the records.
Upon retirement, Marnie realized that her interest in research coupled with her talents for organizing documents and papers could be helpful to the Congregational Library as we seek to tell the important story of the UCC Coalition. We couldn't agree more!
Based on our belief that History Matters, we look forward to sharing this story in the months ahead. Thanks to Marnie for her devotion to this important project.
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Peeling Back The Onion
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Sometimes satire says it best. My favorite source is The Onion, that wonderful website of news and current events, always funny and often brilliant. If I had to pick a favorite article it would be the one that hit closest to home: "Historians Politely Remind Nation to Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions." The article outlines an exciting new strategy called "Look Back Before You Act." "It's actually pretty simple," as one historian explains. "Did the thing we're thinking of doing make people upset? Did it start a war? If it did, then we might want to think about not doing it."
Good satire makes us laugh, but it also points out truth. Although we often recite that famous dictum, "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it," most of us assume that history has no real practical value-except perhaps for people studying up on trivia for a TV game show. People rarely if ever consult historians about big decisions, no matter how loudly (or politely) we might insist.
Why is that? The Spiritual Practice of Remembering
is a book about the reasons why history seems so irrelevant today, why that Onion satire rings so true. It explains our modern problem-why we have come to imagine our ancestors as somehow less "enlightened" than we are and do not expect to learn from them-and offers ideas for reconnecting with the past in meaningful and challenging ways, not just turning back the clock to old and dead traditions.. As we say here in the Congregational Library, "history matters." The Spiritual Practice of Remembering is about both why and how.
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Visit us online at www.CongregationalLibrary.org
for a complete list of our resources,
classes, tours, lectures, and more!
For more information on the Library, call (617) 523-0470,
or e-mail info@14beacon.org
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