For Churches and Agencies Adding Records

Church records in the vault.

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Congregational Records

The Pastor, with the assistance of the Congregational Archivist/Administrative Assistant, will see that the following materials are deposited in the Provincial Archives in a timely manner. These materials are available for use in the Archives immediately after processing, with the exception of Board minutes and correspondence of the past 70 years, which may be consulted only by written permission of the Chair of the relevant board.

Please submit only ONE copy of each of these items, whether you submit them in a digital or physical form.

Items which should be transferred to the Archives at the end of the year:

  • Elders minutes
  • Trustees minutes
  • Joint Board minutes
  • Congregation Council minutes
  • Year-end reports, including financial, submitted at Congregation Council
  • Budget submitted at Congregation Council
  • Minutes and year-end reports of other committees, such as Stewardship, Christian Education, or Women’s Fellowship

Items which should have a copy reserved for transfer to the Archives when they are produced or updated but may be transferred to the Archives in batches or at the end of the year:

  • Updated or new directories of members and/or membership lists
  • Updated or new histories of the congregation and organizations within the congregation
  • Updated or new brochures concerning any facet of church life
  • Bulletins, programs, and other printed materials created and/or used for special Sundays, anniversaries, dedications, and other occasions
  • Updated or new constitutions, by-laws, and rules and regulations
  • Memoirs

Items which should be transferred to the Archives once completed or full:

The Archives should be on your newsletter mailing list so that each issue comes to the Archives automatically. This can be either an email list or physical mail list but submission of both email and physical is not necessary. Please send to sparchives@mcsp.org or:

Moravian Archives
457 S. Church Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Agency Records

The Archives also coordinates the transfer of provincial agency records and will provide detailed guidance for the transfer of those records in 2024. For now, please mirror the congregational records guidelines as closely as possible.

Church Register

Please submit all church register data to the Archives. The Province can no longer procure the black ledger binders previously used to maintain this important source of information. You can still retrieve blank church register pages at the provincial offices at Cedarhyrst. However, we are now offering a new way to submit church register data. The best way to submit church register data moving forward is by using the form below:

Submit information as it is gathered; this may mean you enter the form multiple times throughout a church member’s life. That is okay and to be expected. Archivists will work on the back end to reconcile duplicate records.

Memoirs

All memoirs should be submitted to the Archives for permanent recordkeeping. The best way to submit them is by using the form below:


You may also mail memoirs to us at:

Moravian Archives
457 S. Church Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Or email them to us at: sparchives@mcsp.org

If possible, please enclose hard copies of the memoir being transferred in a Death Record/Memoir envelope provided by the Archives. If submitting the memoir via email, please provide the information found on the template of the Death-Record-Memoir-Envelope.

Financial Records and Personnel Records

The following items should not be deposited in the Archives:

  • Weekly/monthly financial statements or reports
  • Cancelled checks
  • Receipt books
  • Bank Statements
  • Paid bills or invoices
  • Personnel records

These documents should be kept by the individual congregations for the length of time deemed appropriate for taxes and other purposes. When disposing of these documents, please do so in an appropriate manner, such as by shredding them.

Other Records

  • Congregations and agencies may transfer correspondence, photographs, and audiovisual material produced during the business operations of those entities, which may include those that document events held by those entities.
  • Please limit the number of photographs and audiovisual items transferred to the Archives to only those necessary to convey and depict the event as the Archives has limited capabilities to store and provide access to these items.
  • Please do not transfer audiovisual material copyrighted by a non-Moravian entity.
  • Please do not transfer sheet music nor strictly musical recordings to the Archives. Those should be deposited with the Moravian Music Foundation.
  • The Archives does not accept the transfer of art and 3D artifacts, except under unique circumstances, as we do not have the capacity and ability to store and grant access to them.

Deaccession Policy

The Archives reserves the right to dispose of items that do not meet the criteria described above. Please refer to the full Deaccession Policy for more information.

Questions? Contact us! sparchives@mcsp.org or 336-722-1742

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