It’s finally time to sort through that useless stuff that has been cluttering up the house for months – or years. Boxes full of old papers, documents, letters; perhaps a yellowed photo or two of Great-Uncle Tom on his wedding day, or a faded bit of foolscap containing Opa’s speech on mum’s wedding, or even a bunch of those light blue ‘lucht-post’ letters, every available space criss-crossed in Tante Lutske’s tiny hand-writing. An old slide projector, perhaps – pushed to the very back of an old wardrobe; the hideous vase that took pride of place in Oma’s ‘voor-kamer’ (you didn’t have the heart to throw it out when she died, but really . . . ); a pile of minute-books from Ora Et Labora girl’s club in the 1970s – you can’t remember how you ended up with them, but surely they’ve been sitting there long enough . . .
You may have experienced it. That decision to be utterly ruthless, totally unsentimental in the clearing process – throw the lot out. You begin with great determination and find yourself making good progress, and you’re already congratulating yourself on how good your spare room (or your shed) will look after the grand clean-up. And then something inexplicable happens. An old Una Sancta cutting flutters to the floor, a photo album falls open, and before you realise it, you’re sitting cross-legged amongst the junk, totally absorbed in the past. An hour or two later that ruthless zeal which consumed you has disappeared and you quietly shove everything back in its place – after all, you weren’t that desperate for room!
Perhaps the reason why many of us have a curious reluctance to throw out the clutter of the past is that it truly has value beyond pure sentiment. Each generation is connected with the previous generations; the experiences of our forebears have directly affected our own lives. The things which bear testimony to the past lives are not mere flotsam, but tell the important story of where we came from, who we are and what our future holds.
It’s now some seventy years since the first Free Reformed migrants arrived in Australia and established churches in Armadale, Albany and Launceston. Most of the first migrants have been taken to glory, but the work God did through them lives on. The history of the Free Reformed Churches – in every decade – is worth preserving because it forms part of the story of God’s church gathering work through the generation – His covenant faithfulness through the generations and our hope and confidence in the future. It’s a story which every present generation needs to know.
With this in mind, a number of us have instituted the ‘Free Reformed Churches of Australia Archive and Collection’, to be known more simply as the Free Reformed History Collection. The idea is that the collection becomes the repository of all sorts of material from the community which will help preserve the story of our heritage. Its stated purpose is:
To preserve cultural material that has the potential to assist in understanding the cultural history of the FRCA communities, particularly the history of the communities’ founding years and the establishment and historical evolution of the communities’ various institutions;
To provide persons with a benevolent interest in the cultural history of the FRCA communities ready access to cultural material relevant to their interest, within the reasonable constraints of privacy and other moral and ethical considerations.
To promote awareness and understanding of the cultural history of the FRSA communities.
At this stage, the work is still in its planning stages. Incorporation papers have been drawn up; Fair Haven has generously made space available for a collection room; suitable archiving software is being investigated, collection policies and suitable funding sources are being considered. Further information is forthcoming. We hope that quite soon we will be ready to send out a call-out for donations of cultural material from members of the church material.
Meanwhile, when you get the urge to do the big clean-up and start wondering if it’s right to throw out that old ARPA constitution that ended up in your drawer, or the slides of Armadale Church opening, or that photo of you and your dad at the mission services in the South Coast Progress Hall (Albany 1970s), think again, and don’t throw it out just yet. It could be exactly what the Free Reformed Historical Collection is looking for!