April 12, 2010

ELGIN, IL – The Brethren Digital Archives (BDA) group has a new website at http://www.brethrendigitalarchives.org/.

The website includes background about the digitization project for Brethren publications, the mission statement of the group, a list of the partners, news, and contact information. There are plans to add an option for online contributions.

The website was introduced at the BDA meeting on March 4-5 in Winona Lake, Ind., hosted by the "Brethren Missionary Herald" office. A significant portion of the meeting was spent evaluating vendors interested in digitizing Brethren periodicals. Also considered were digitizing standards, fundraising, promotion, and by-laws.

The group toured the Manchester College library and archives, the Grace College library and archives, and the facilities of the HF Group in North Manchester, one of the potential vendors.

The mission of the Brethren Digital Archives is to digitize Brethren periodicals produced from 1851-2000 by each of the Brethren groups that trace their origin to the first Brethren baptisms in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708.

The first Brethren periodical was begun in 1851 by Henry Kurtz, titled "The Monthly Gospel-Visiter."

The first periodicals to be digitized will be those published before 1880, documents that are common to all the groups. Plans are being made to raise funds for the first phase, which includes 49 volumes, 1,504 issues, and 23,000 images or pages. The first phase could cost up to $40,000.

This was the sixth meeting of the BDA. The next meeting is scheduled for June 28 in Ashland, Ohio.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 125,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service