 Documents that tell our Story |
As I write, the connectionalYoung People’s Department (YPD) is gathering in Orlando, Florida for their Quadrennial, and the Women’s Missionary Society is preparing for their gathering in just a few days. I look forward to visiting with many of you there! Before I depart for Orlando, I’d like to share a bit more about my vision for the office of Historiographer and Executive Director of Research and Scholarship. Definitively, the term historiography literally means, ‘the history of historical writing’. Another way to look at it is that in general - a historiographer analyzes the way other historians have written history about certain subjects.
For example, many of you are old enough to remember when the history of the United States was written and taught in schools from the narrow perspective of contributions of powerful white males. Well, historiographers study the ideas, events, and personalities that accompanied, or in many cases demanded a change in the way U.S. History is written and taught such that the contributions of women, the poor, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native-Americans and other excluded persons are given proper recognition to the formation of the United States.
The most important tool that historians use to research the past is called the primary source. Most primary sources are documents that were created by witnesses or first recorders of historical events during (or very near) the time they occurred. They include, but are not limited to: journals, speeches, interviews, conference minutes, letters, reports, photographs, financial records, memos, and newspaper articles. I have provided an image of The 1817 Doctrine and Discipline of the AME Church, first published by Richard Allen in 1817 - a very important primary source document for our Zion.
For our current use, The 2008 Doctrine and Discipline of the AME Church lays out the requirements for the connectional office of Historiographer on pages 158, 159. Per the discipline, the historiographer’s first three essential duties are:
(1) Write an updated history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
(2) Represent the AME Church by participating in several historical societies.(3) Act as the archivist of the church – finding historical records of our church and placing them in safe and accessible locations. After AME historical records have been securely housed, copies of these documents must remain in the custody of the AME Church.
In reference to the first task of the connectional historiographer, my research on the AME Church in Jamaica contributes significantly to an updated history of the AME Church. As it relates to the second task, I have had the privilege of attending several important gatherings of the mentioned societies as a Methodist Church historian who is ordained in the AME Church. (See photo of the Summer Wesley Seminar at Duke University in 2008. ) The third task, is of profound interest to me, as I am convinced that this is the area with the most potential to expand the AME Church’s capacity to perform historical research within the 21st century and beyond. This directly relates to my vision of placing the primary sources of our AME Church at your fingertips!
If I am elected Historiographer and Executive Director of Research and Scholarship, my first order of business will be to create a digital archival center, where members, scholars and interested persons can locate and use primary source documents of the AME Church in a digital format. In other words, documents that reveal the history of our church - missionary correspondence, various conference minutes, miscellaneous letters, organizational records and more will become electronically accessible.
I invite you to take a look at two websites that provide access to many AME historical documents in digital format. The first is provided by the University of North Carolina: http://docsouth.unc.edu/. The second is provided by the Ohio Historical Society: http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/serial/aa_se01.cfm. Using this format, I pledge my full-time commitment to place the AME REVIEW online and provide research tools that provide access to documents that tell our stories - stories of the history of the connectional AME Church from District 1 through District 20.
I pray that you are able to ‘feel’ my passion for this work, and my enthusiasm in this quest to serve you. History is not just my academic discipline, but my ministry, as I am “Today’s Historian for Tomorrow’s Church!”
Be Blessed!
Rev. Sharon
Quest 2012 Candidate
Historiographer/Executive Director of Research and Scholarship
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