The preservation and the use of archives and records is an often neglected but nevertheless extremely important task in the local church.

The church's past helps it understand itself now. Its stance on various issues, its commitment to the goals of the Kingdom of God, its willingness or lack of willingness to adopt new procedures and programs are all rooted in its history.

The church's heritage may enrich and stimulate its present membership to deeper commitment and, more profound service. This is an essential matter for every generation, but especially so in these years when the sense of meaninglessness has pervaded so many lives.

A knowledge of the church's past may help it to avoid the mistakes of earlier years.

Every Vestry has a responsibility to keep and preserve the parish registers of baptism, marriage, burial, and registers of services.

Archives also have a ubique value for many people beyond the church. At a personal level such records may help to provide some people with a sense of identity and belonging. The registers of baptism, marriage and burial have a high value for genealogists and family historians. Registers record important events which have religious significance both for the persons involved, and for the congregation. Also the events to which they point may express a sense of belonging and corporate unity, for they focus the community identity shared by the family and friends of the individual persons concerned. Even brief entries in registers identify high points in family life, the importance of which increases rather than diminishes with the passage of time.

The survival of some of these unique resources is threatened by time, poor storage procedures, and overall neglect. Papers to brittle to handle, crumbling newspapers, books damaged by mold or insects represent threats to access by future generations. The loss of any records, whether national, diocesan, or parochial, undermines our religious heritage.

The Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York is committed to acting as an information source for Church agencies seeking assistance in preserving their records for posterity.