Evadoc Newsletter Fall 2023

Table of Contents

Building Bridges
At Home
To Bridge a Gap
New dates online workshop ‘archiving for dummies’
Working Student Liesbeth
Acquisitions
Website Archiving
Facebook and Instagram
Transfering archives?
Heritage Consultancy
Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Building Bridges

For nearly 15 years, Evadoc has been tirelessly building bridges. For instance, we build bridges between the present and the past by documenting the history of Protestant and Anglican presence in our country. We do this not only by collecting relevant books, magazines, posters et cetera, but also by acquiring audiovisual recordings and archiving websites. Sharing our expertise is another way of continually building bridges. Last year, we advised and assisted Bethel evangelical church in Schaerbeek with its Centenary celebration. And soon, we will share our expertise in a practical and approachable way in the online workshop “Archiving for Dummies. But we also want to build bridges to hard-to-reach audiences. International or migrant church congregations are an essential part of the Protestant evangelical presence in our country. How can we ensure that their heritage and history in our regions are also preserved for the future? The KADOC project To Bridge a Gap offers unique opportunities for this. By actively involving Sub-Saharan church congregations in implementing this project, we aim to stimulate heritage awareness among them. This will better equip them to look back at their genesis in an informed way in the future.

At Home

On April 20 and 21, 2024, Flanders and Brussels will host the annual Heritage Day. The theme for 2024 is
“(at) home.” This theme offers many starting points for church congregations to connect with a wide audience in an approachable way. After all, a local church is also often described as a “spiritual home” or “the household of God.” What customs and traditions foster a welcoming environment for all ages in your church congregation? What stories can you tell about this? Do you convey your stories by penning them into verses? Are there items that are inextricably linked to your church building or congregation? Can you share a story about that? How does your church congregation provide a spiritual home for believers from diverse cultures and languages?

The Bethel evangelical church in Schaarbeek set a great example on its centenary. During the church service, the hymns sung represented various decades of the church’s existence. Each time period was visualized by a child wearing typical clothes for that period.

If you brainstorm with a small group, you can surely find a way for your church congregation to participate in Heritage Day 2024! Need some more input? Then be sure to download the brochure for inspiration (in Dutch only). Please note that your activity should not solely consist of an open house. Your activity sould take place on either Saturday, April 20th or Sunday, April 21st, 2024, and it’s free for everyone to attend. You can register for activities and find more information at: erfgoeddag.be. The deadline to submit your proposal is 12 January 2024.

To Bridge a Gap

The Flemish government-funded KADOC heritage project To  Bridge a Gap began on 1 October 2023 and will run for three years. The project aims to document the migration of Sub-Saharan communities from the Brussels Capital Region to Flanders, with a focus on their movable and intangible heritage. Because most of them call themselves Protestants, KADOC is calling on the expertise of Evadoc for this project. The first year of the project focuses on the Aalst-Ninove-Denderleeuw region. In recent years, more than 20 international or migrant churches have been established here. More information can be found on the project web page.

The online workshop ‘Archiving for Dummies’ has been rescheduled.

The online workshops “Archiving for Dummies” were cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. This doesn’t mean that tomorrow will never come. Would you like to learn how to organize and keep track of important emails, photos, minutes, and websites for future reference? Then be sure to register!

The new dates are: Monday, 11 December 2023  in Dutch  and Wednesday, 13 December 2023 in English. To register, please use the following link.

For whom?

For anyone who has a secretarial position in a local church or organization:

• Secretary of the Church Council/Board of Directors
• Secretary of the youth work, or any other activity in the church
• Webmaster, social media manager
• Anyone interested…

The programme will run from 7:45 p.m. until around 10:00 p.m.
About a week before the scheduled event, you will receive a link for this hands-on training evening.

Working Student Liesbeth

A working student processed hundreds of digital newsletters and magazines this summer, just like last year. Most of these items will be available in the LIMO public catalog soon. Thank you, Liesbeth!

Acquisitions

Archives

In the past few months, we have received new additions to the personal archives of Ignace Demaerel, Jean-Claude Thienpont, and Samuel Liberek. We have also received the first part of John van der Dussen’s personal archives.

The Operation Mobilization International archive now includes speeches by George Verwer, the founder and longtime director, given at various conferences and events over many years. He passed away earlier this Spring.

One of the latest acquisitions is a large collection of audio cassettes containing recordings of church services at the Christengemeente in Peer. This collection of church services, study days, and conferences in Flanders, is a valuable addition to our recordings. This is undoubtedly a valuable resource for research on Protestantism and its local churches in Flanders.

Publications

In recent months, we have expanded our collection of publications to include both new and old ones.

New publications include:

Daniël De Waele, Godenschemering

Tom Schepers, Op zoek naar de Heilige Graal

Zevende Dags Adventisten, Het grote conflict

We are regularly presented with older material. This includes missing magazine issues and titles not yet in our collection. Some examples are:

A little more extensively, I want to reflect on the book Intimis by Allard Pierson. It first appeared in 1861 and is available on the internet. Among other things, he writes about his time as a pastor in Leuven (1854-1857). The book in our collection is particularly interesting due to the dedication at the front and notes commenting on Pierson’s liberal theology.

Donations of old books and magazines can sometimes include unexpected items. A commemorative plate created in 1996 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Antwerp Bible Day is a good example. This interdenominational conference still exists and has been taking place in Aartselaar in recent years. The roots of this initiative go back to World War II. Jean Du Meunier established a secret network to exchange uncensored letters between young Protestants, who were forced laborers in Nazi Germany, and their families. From this work emerged in 1944 the interdenominational Association for Evangelical Publications (V.E.U.) and the periodical De Kruisbanier. The Bible Day was established in 1946 to foster unity among Protestant denominations in Flanders and to reunite ex-forced laborers.

Website Archiving

From time to time, everyone experiences it: You try to access a particular website, but it appears to be unavailable now.

Or, during website maintenance, the home page is temporarily replaced with a construction message. Due to the ephemeral nature of online information, the digital religious heritage is constantly at risk. KADOC-KU Leuven has taken steps to safeguard religious heritage that is available online. Within KADOC, Evadoc is responsible for the Protestant digital heritage. You can help us preserve your online heritage by granting permission through this link. Important to note is that “the archiving and opening access of websites [is] in accordance with applicable legislation, including GDPR.” Click here for more information.

Facebook and Instagram

Did you know that Evadoc is on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram? Keep an eye out for engaging posts on Facebook and Instagram in between newsletters.
For example, we posted this on our Facebook page: “While triaging a recent acquisition, this note fell out of a book.

The book was owned by Karel Blommaert during his pastorate in Dunkirk, just before World War I. It illustrates the tense relations between Catholics and Protestants at that time. The Facebook page also includes another post about this poem in Triverius magazine. So, remember to regularly check our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Transfering archives?

It is possible to deposit archives at Evadoc. If you give it to us for safekeeping, we will keep and manage your records, but you will retain ownership. This means, for example, that we will always ask your permission if someone wants to consult something from your archives. The other option is a donation. We will then not only take care of the storage and management, but also deal with consultation requests. General guidelines for transferring paper or digital archives can be found here and here [links available in Dutch only]. For specific questions or further information, please contact Aaldert Prins.

Heritage consultancy service

KADOC has an extensive consultancy service for diverse religious heritage. More specifically for documentary (archives and publications) and intangible (traditions and customs) heritage. The Evadoc consultant within KADOC is the point of contact for Protestant or Anglican heritage [links available in Dutch only]. For questions about objects and immovable heritage, we are happy to put you in touch with our colleagues from PARCUM.

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