E&R Church. Board of International Missions.

Collection

Identifier: E&R RG 2013.001

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Board of International Missions. Both the Evangelical Synod of North America and the Reformed Church in the United States had Boards of Foreign Missions. When the two denominations merged in 1934, the mission boards were also merged and continued their work under the name, Board of International Missions. The new denomination maintained the mission fields already established in China, Japan, Turkey, India, Iraq and Honduras, and added the United Andean Indian Missions in Ecuador, and Ghana.

Arthur V. Casselman (Reformed) and Frederick A. Goetsch (Evangelical Synod) served as co-general secretaries in the 1930s and 1940s. Dobbs F. Ehlman became General Secretary in 1947 and served until the creation of the United Church for World Ministries in 1961.

The collection consists of minutes of the Board of International Missions, reports to the Board and reports from the Board to the General Synod, general correspondence, financial records, legal records, publications and newsletters, and subject files from the office of the General Secretary.

Files on the individual mission fields are also included and consist of minutes, reports, correspondence, financial records, photographs, publications, legal records, blueprints, and files for individual churches, schools, colleges, and seminaries.

The missionary files had once been in a larger group of missionary correspondence. In 1993 and 1994 these files were separated into two groups according to the beginning date of the missionary's service. If the individual began missionary service before 1934, the file was placed with Reformed Church missionaries; files for persons beginning service after 1934 are in this collection. The missionary files consist of conrrespondence between the missionaries in the field and the General Secretary for the Board in the home office, reports and writings of the missionaries, biographical information and, in many cases, photographs of the missionaries. The files represent 114 men and 107 women, some of whom were couples and some single.