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The Archives welcomes research inquiries from members of the Church and from the general public.

Browse Holdings Profiles

An outline of select holdings provides an overview of the Archives' organizational records and special collections.

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Recent policies, positions, and statements by and about governing bodies of The Episcopal Church.

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The Archives invites you to support its mission by making a donation of funds or contributing archival records to its historical collections.

Consult Governance Documents

The Archives gathers a collection of formal documents that constitute the Church's canonical texts.

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Help for parishes and dioceses in managing their own archives and records management programs.

View Exhibits and Microsites

The Archives offers selective archival records as exhibits from its holdings or to highlight information of continuing value and historical interest.

Archives News

Amending Parish Registers and Church Records

The Archives has prepared a set of recommendations for local churches in developing a policy on making name and gender changes to Episcopal Church records.  These guidelines for policy development accommodate individuals’ requests to align name and gender entries with usage they have legally adopted in civil jurisdictions.  Name and gender identity in records is particularly sensitive in instances where individuals seek to safeguard their privacy, protect themselves from harm, or simply to revise records that do not accurately represent their identity. 

The guidelines were prepared at the request of General Convention (2018-A088) and approved for distribution by Executive Council at its October 9–11, 2020 meeting.  The Executive Council’s resolution and an additional bibliography of resources are available under the website’s “Text Center” tab above.  The Guidelines for Policy on Amending Church Records for Name and Gender Changes are available in Spanish.  The Church archivists welcome questions and comments on the guidelines.

More Archives News

To Our Patrons

As we move into February and the continuing pandemic, we remind our users that the Archives Research Office remains closed to protect the safety of the staff.  Physical access to the archival collections is extremely limited.  In addition, the Archives is preparing for a spring move of the Research Office and the holdings to a new Austin location as the Seminary of the Southwest begins its campus renovation plan on June 1, 2021. 

If you have an urgent research question, use the Archives’ Contact Form.  We will attempt to respond; however, it is likely we will only be able to help locate the best online or alternate source of information until the holdings are physically accessible.  Be sure to consult the Digital Archives and other resources on the website for key governance information.  We wish everyone the very best in these challenging times and look forward to having the Archives research service restored as soon as safely possible.

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