DABOH Current Projects

The 2008 Balaton Conference mandated the following three tasks for 2008-2012:

1. Commissioning of best-practice manuals

Following the success of the publication of  Martha Lund Smalley and Rosemary Seton’s Archives Manual into seven languages, DABOH will prepare two best-practice manuals, for (a) digitization projects; and (b) documentation of gray literature. Mrs Rosemary Seton and Professor Paul Stuehrenberg will take up these respective tasks.

The Russian edition of the Archives Manual will be available by mid 2009.

Update:

12 December 2009: The Digitization Guidelines is put on hold.

2. Workshop on Documenting Christianity in Contexts of Transition (Paris 2010)

To mark the centenary of the Edinburgh 1910 Conference, DABOH will convene a Workshop in Paris at Défap-Service protestant de mission, 102, boulevard Arago from 25th to 28th May 2010 on “Documenting Christianity in Contexts of Transition”. We are planning for a gathering of around 15 practitioners and stakeholders from regions where the Christian community is undergoing huge transitions as well as local participation by representatives of missionary organisations in Paris – both Catholic and Protestant. The proposed Workshop aims (a) to explore the theology of archives in contexts of transition; and (b) to discuss the draft of two commissioned best-practice manuals, one on digitizing missionary materials and the other on documenting gray literature.

Mrs Rosemary Seton (SOAS) and Dr Danut Manastireanu (World Vision, the Middle East & Eastern Europe region) are the co-chairs of the Programme Design Group for this Workshop.

Update:

12 December 2009: The Paris Workshop is canceled due to lack of response from intended participants.

3. Encouraging and supporting regional initiatives

DABOH encourages its study group members to take up local initiatives. At the same time, we seek ways to foster ingenuity and fresh initiatives among individuals and institutions. We recommend IAMS to make small funds available to assist those starting new projects.

One direct outcome of the Balaton Conference is the launch of the Central and Eastern European Association for Mission Studies (CEEAMS) DABOH group, headed by Dr Danut Manastireanu.  We look forward to working with DABOH-CEEAMS in promoting documentation in Central and Eastern Europe.

Archivists from Europe also proposed drawing up a list or directory of major missionary archives starting with Western Europe and hopefully extending this to include collections in Central and Eastern Europe.  We warmly welcome this initiative, and look forward to the fruits of this collaboration between archivists in Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

Update:

12 December 2009:

  • DABOH intends to devote the budget originally allocated for the Paris 2010 Workshop to assist Claire-Lise Lombard and DEFAP in producing an European mission archives directory.
  • DABOH sponsored a two-day workshop organized by CEMAA (Centro Evangelico de Misiologia Andino-Amazonica in May 2009. Dr Tito Paredes, director of CEMAA wrote: “The workshop with Dr Mariel Voth was wonderful! We had a nice group of 18 leaders, pastors and graduate students (both men and women). We reproduced and used the manual on  Rescuing the memory of our Peoples in Spanish, as well as Mrs Martha Smalley’s lectures on the topic, in addition to Mariel’s own gifts as communicator and teacher.  Everybody was very happy with the workshop.”
  • The Centre for the Study of Christianity in Asia, Trinity Theological College is holding a “Christian music in Southeast Asia” Conference from 24 to 26 June 2011. Dr Michael Poon, director of CSCA writes: “This Meeting aims to bring together ten Christian composers, poets, musicians and theologians to survey the present situation in South-East Asia, and to explore ways CSCA can promote, identify, collect and disseminate Christian music in the sub-region.” Dr I-to Loh and Dr Michael Poon are co-convenors of this Conference.