A Few Words About Christ the King Church’s Accumulated Wordsby Beverly Palmer
A Few Words About Christ the King Church’s Accumulated Words“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And then humankind developed written language and congregations and committees and commissions, classes and special events, newspapers and newsletters. Then one day someone said, “History demands that we save these written words,” and hence was born the idea of archives. Also born was the bane of so many people’s lives–mounds and mounds of paper screaming to be purged and organized.
Yes, Christ the King has a roomful of papers and photographs and memorabilia dating from 1944 to present, depicting an extraordinary history of an extraordinary church. A number of people worked on taming this material back in the mid-1990s, including Marie Monroe, but since then it has been aggressively reproducing. Recently, an archival team has resumed efforts to review, purge, organize and prepare for permanent storage all of this history. Marie alone has done an industrious and impressive job for many years, recording Christ the King events and members through photography, collecting records and memorabilia and organizing the material – this along with her many other volunteer roles, her full time job at Rice University, and her family responsibilities. With the expansion of our church facilities and our exponentially increasing activities and interests, however, the job has grown beyond the capacity of such a small “team.” As a former paralegal for a large law firm, I spent 28 years dealing with documents in all capacities and had begun getting withdrawal symptoms when I learned about the project. Oh, what great joy to see such piles and boxes of paper screaming for management. Consequently, I have joined Marie in her endeavors.
What we have discovered so far is a profound nostalgia trip for us two “old-timers,” and a rich fund of future stories and articles to eventually be shared with you. But, sadly, we have also discovered significant gaps in records and memorabilia. There are also lots of missing names and dates on photographs. Therefore, we are asking you if you would consider donating any records or memorabilia that you might have stashed away at home. Of particular interest are programs, bulletins, newsletters, special letters and announcements, and especially photographs. You will win extra brownie points if these items are dated! If you do not wish to give up your items permanently, consider letting us borrow them to make copies. In the near future, we also plan to hold special gatherings (to be announced) to see if you all might help with missing dates and names.
Also, if you love history, have document review and management skills and are salivating at the opportunity to wade through and tame lots of paper, we invite you to join us. Our contact information: Marie Monroe or Beverly Palmer. You can also drop off anything you might have at the church office; just mark it clearly for the archive team and indicate whether or not you want it back.