Central Institutions of the Church

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The following list of collections provides more detail on some of the archives collected by the Library. This section covers institutions of the central Church of England. For summary information on further collections, please see the A-Z list, and for fuller details of Library holdings search the online archives catalogue.

Advisory Boards for Moral Welfare

The Advisory Board was established in 1917 as the Archbishops’ Advisory Board for Spiritual and Moral Work (AABSMW). The Board centralised the work of diocesan secretaries in moral welfare, increasing the supply of qualified workers and setting standards for their training. The Board’s object was to lead the way on questions of moral welfare, specifically those affecting Christian standards of sexual morality. The chief concern was with women and young girls, but in 1922 men were included in the Board’s membership.
According to its entry in the 1922 Church of England Yearbook, the aims of the Advisory Board are stated as intending to be of use in the following ways:
a) By increasing the supply of adequate teachers
b) By setting a standard of training, in all branches of the work
c) By collecting and imparting necessary and up-to-date and legislative information
d) by reporting progress and development of new methods
e) By providing visitors and special speakers when asked to do so
f) by advising in special difficulties and arranging for united action when desirable
g) by arousing interest and initiating work in new centres
In January 1939 the Advisory Board became the Church of England Moral Welfare Council; for whose records see MWC.

Advisory Council for the Church’s Ministry

Papers of the ACCM Council and Committees, including minutes of meetings, documents circulated ahead of those meetings, inspection reports, working party papers, correspondence between ACCM Secretaries and ACCM members and with external bodies and individuals, occasional papers produced by ACCM, and general papers relating to the work done by ACCM in overseeing examinations and selection conferences, interacting with Theological Colleges and Training Courses – including administering of funds on behalf of the Church Assembly/General Synod and Trusts, and all other matters pertaining to Ministry.

The Council was formed as a successor to the Central Advisory Council for the Ministry (CACM) in 1966, with the first meeting taking place on 3 May of that year. The main function was ‘to promote the most effective ministry, both of men and women, in the service of the Church and to make appropriate recommendations for this purpose to the Bishops and to the Church Assembly’. The majority of the work of the Council was undertaken by Committees, each with their own terms of reference to guide them.

The council’s last meeting was held on 6 March 1991; its work was then continued by the Advisory Board of Ministry (ABM).

Archbishops’ Commission to Revise the Psalter

The Archbishops’ Commission to Revise the Psalter was set up with the purpose of revising Coverdale’s edition of the psalter in order to make it more understandable and accessible. What resulted were five books containing revised versions of all 150 psalms.

The Commission’s terms of reference: “To produce for the consideration of the Convocations a revision of the text of the Psalter designed to remove obscurities and various errors of translation, yet such as to retain, as far as possible, the general character in style and rhythm of Coverdale’s version and its suitability for congregational use.”

Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas

Papers of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas (ACUPA) relating to the research and producing of their report, ‘Faith in the City’ (1985), including correspondence, minutes, photographs, draft reports, and research papers. Also includes papers of the ‘Gallup Clergy Survey’, including reports, questionnaires, and pilot survey responses, which was commissioned as part of ACUPA’s research by Gallup Poll Ltd.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on the Urban Priority Areas (ACUPA) was established in 1983 by Robert Runcie (Archbishop of Canterbury 1980-91) in the wake of the inner city riots of the early 1980s, particularly in Brixton, and following the prompting of Bishops from urban dioceses.

ACUPA’s aim was to investigate the situation faced by people living in inner cities and outlying housing estates, including issues such as unemployment, education, crime and health; and to explore the presence and involvement of the Church in these neighbourhoods. ACUPA’s findings, along with recommendations on how the Church, the government and society should respond to the issues highlighted, were published in the report, “Faith in the City: A Call to Action by Church and Nation” in December 1985 by Church House.

Alternative Service Book

Records of the Committee of the Alternative Service Book: meeting minutes and documents; correspondence with publishers. Also included are various editions of the Alternative Service Book from authorised publishers and paper ‘separates’ (separate services from the ASB), some of which were forerunners to those that came with the publication of the Alternative Service Book in 1980.

In July 1973, the General Synod passed a resolution requesting the Standing Committee and the House of Bishops to establish a working party to ‘draw up detailed plans for the preparation and issue of a People’s Service Book Committee…’.

The Working Party had, with the consent of the Standing Committee, reinterpreted its original terms of reference (which related to a ‘People’s Service Book’) and reported in favour of an ‘Alternative Service Book’; i.e., a book containing those forms of service authorised for use other than those of 1662. There would then be two Books in common use; the Book of Common Prayer and the ‘Alternative’ Book.

Board for Mission and Unity

The Board for Mission and Unity was established to replace the Missionary and Ecumenical Council (MEC). At the first meeting it was stated that the ‘responsibilities of the new Board were considerably wider than those of the old Missionary and Ecumenical Council and more complex and technical’, and the four broad areas of work were to be: mission at home; mission overseas; unity at home; and unity overseas.

The archive comprises papers of the Board, its committees and sub-committees, and in relation to the work carried out under its Terms of Reference. Includes minutes of meetings, documents and papers circulated to Board or Committee members ahead of meetings, correspondence – both internal and external, and reports and articles used for background information on particular areas of interest. The collection also includes some material created by its predecessor, the Missionary and Ecumenical Council, which dates back to the 1940s, and of its successor, the Board of Mission, dating from 1995.

Board for Social Responsibility

The Board for Social Responsibility came into being on the 1st January 1958 as an Advisory Committee to the Church Assembly. Aiming ‘to promote and co-ordinate the thought and action of the Church in matters affecting family, social and industrial life’, it was an amalgamation of two earlier central Church bodies – the Church of England Moral Welfare Council (MWC) and the Social and Industrial Council (SIC).

The collection contains records of the Board for Social Responsibility (BSR) and its sub-committees.

In addition to a core of minutes, documents and papers detailing the work and administration of the Board and the sub-committees, the collection also contains a large quantity of files created by Working Parties set up by the Board to investigate specific issues. Within these files can generally be found minutes of meetings, correspondence between members, reports and papers circulated between the members, and background information papers. A small number of records of predecessor bodies to the BSR are also present.

Church Assembly Council for Ecumenical Co-Operation

The Church Assembly Council for Ecumenical Co-Operation (CACEC) was founded in 1949, with its terms of reference being:

‘To bring forward in the Church Assembly such matters arising out of the business either of the World Council of Churches or the British Council of Churches which require action by the Church of England’.

Includes Council administrative papers, Secretary’s correspondence and the papers of the various bodies which were involved in the Anglican-Presbyterian Conversations which were held through the 1960s. Also includes papers in relation to an Ecumenical House for Prayer (Benifold), to which the Council Secretary acted as a Governor.

Central Advisory Council for the Ministry

Papers of the Council (CACM), Sub-Committees and Working Parties. The Terms of Reference of the new Council, reconstituted of the Central Advisory Council of Training for the Ministry, were defined as follows:

a) To keep under review the needs and opportunities of the Church for the ordained ministry, for Deaconesses, and the various forms of lay service, to make recommendations to the Bishops and the Church Assembly, and to serve those needs as and when directed to do so.
b) To make recommendations as to the disbursement of monies received from the Church Assembly or elsewhere with which to finance the training of candidates for Holy Orders in conjunction with Diocesan Ordination Candidates Funds and other bodies engaged in the work of preparing candidates for Holy Orders; and similarly in regard to training of Deaconesses and for recognised forms of lay ministry.
c) To approve places and courses of training for the ordained and lay ministry, and to advise upon all questions concerning their provision, maintenance, fees and economic management.
d) To formulate in conjunction with the Central Board of Finance a policy of finance with regard to the capital needs of the Theological Colleges and Training Houses for women.

Central Advisory Council of Training for the Ministry

Papers of the Council (CACTM) and its Committees. Includes minutes of meetings, documents and correspondence.

The Central Advisory Council of Training for the Ministry (CACTM) was established in 1912, with its work being carried out by a series of committees: General Purposes, Examinations, Inspections, Selection, Recruitment, Post-Ordination Training and Grants.

At the meeting of 19 February 1913 the functions of the Council were stated as follows: To watch the supply of candidates for Holy Orders, and its sources.

a) To consider the best methods for training and testing candidates.
b) To draw up, and from time to time revise, a list of Theological Colleges their recognition of which the Bishop advises.
c) To provide for the inspection of existing Theological Colleges; and advise as to the formation and supply of new Theological Colleges.
d) Generally to promote unity of action between all those concerned in the training of candidates for Holy Orders, and to collect information and make suggestions of the guidance of Bishops.

Council for the Care of Churches

The Council for the Care of Churches was originally formed to co-ordinate and assist the work of the Diocesan Advisory Committees. Its function was to advise the General Synod on the construction and care of churches, and act on Synod’s behalf in contacts with government and professional bodies over church inspection and repair. It also provided financial aid for the conservation of furnishings and works of art in churches as well as advice on specific conservation issues and on new churches.

The collection contains papers of the Council and its principal Committees; including the Conservation Committee, its Secretariat, papers of the Conservation Committee’s Sub-Committees, and papers related to their activities. It also reflects the Council’s dealings with external bodies, including dealings with Diocesan Advisory Committees and General Synod bodies as well as the private sector.

It also includes papers from different deposits within topic and theme-based classes on aspects of churches: their exteriors and interiors, and their furnishings and contents.

HM Commissioners for Building New Churches (Church Building Commission)

HM Church Building Commission was founded in 1818 for building and promoting the building of additional churches in populous parishes as a solution to the increasingly inadequate church accommodation found in the expanding cities and towns of England and Wales. 

Essentially the Commissioners’ main functions included: inquiring into the state of the parishes to ascertain those needing extra church accommodation; granting money for building the extra churches and chapels; accepting the conveyance of sites for churches, chapels, burial grounds and parsonages, as well as houses for parsonages; approving the architectural plans, appraising and choosing the tenders, monitoring budgets and generally overseeing the building; dividing parishes into ecclesiastical districts for the new churches; establishing tables of pew rents for these churches and chapels; and church building repairs.

The Church Building Commission archive is arranged into six thematic series of records, which best represent the form and function of the Commission: CBC/1 foundation; CBC/2 corporate governance; CBC/3 parliamentary papers; CBC/4 corporate financial; CBC/7 operational records and CBC/14 artefacts. Series CBC/2, CBC/3, CBC/4 and CBC/7 consist of both sub-series and file level descriptions, whereas series CBC/1 and CBC/14 only consists of file level descriptions.

Central Board of Missions

Central Boards of Mission of the Church of England came to being in 1908 by constituting United Boards of Mission (see collection UBM) as the Central Boards of Mission of the Church of England.

Its functions were stated as follows:

a) To impress upon all members of the Church in such ways as from time to time may seem desirable, their responsibility as to Foreign Missions, and to set forth the principles which ought to govern the Missionary work of the Church.
b) To issue reports from time to time on the spiritual wants of heathen countries, and to direct attention to the opening providentially placed.
c) To give counsel when applied to by any Colonial or Missionary Church.
d) To act as referee on questions which Missionary Societies may desire to refer to the Board.
e) To collect and tabulate, as far as be found desirable and practicable, as Acts and Canons passed in the various Synods of the Church at home and abroad.
f) To undertake any other work in connection with Missions which may from time to time be entrusted to the Board either by the Archbishops, or by the Convocations of Canterbury or York.

In 1921 Missionary Council of the Church Assembly was established to take the place of the Central Board.

Church Commissioners for England

The Commissioners manage the Church of England investment fund. The money they make from those investments contribute to the cost of mission projects, dioceses in low-income areas, bishops, cathedrals, and pensions. The Church Commissioners also provide administrative support for Church. The Commissioners inherited the property and functions of Queen Anne’s Bounty (1704-1948) and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (1836-1948) after the merge of the two bodies and creation of the Church Commissioners in 1948. This archive is currently in the process of being catalogued and new entries are being added to the existing catalogue. Records available for research so far include Annual Reports, meeting papers of the Commissioners Board of Governors and papers of the Secretary to the Church Commissioners.

Church Estates Commissioners

When the Ecclesiastical Commissioners began to take over the estates and manage them, there was concern expressed that private individuals affected as lessees might find the Commissioners’ terms onerous and might then be without redress, since there was nobody in the House of Commons directly representing the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Therefore, an Act was subsequently passed adding three additional laymen to be known as the Church Estates Commissioners. Of the three, two were to be paid (one being appointed by the Crown as the First Church Estates Commissioner and the other being appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Third Church Estates Commissioner), their duties involved the management and control of the day to day business of the Commissioners.

Their archive includes foundation, corporate and financial records. Also includes reports and records generated by the Commissioners’ property and investment management activities (deeds and ledgers).

Church of England Council for Empire Settlement

The Council for Overseas Settlement was formed in the spring of 1925, but became known as the Church of England Council for Empire Settlement (CECES) almost immediately. The SIC report recommended that the functions of the new Council should include the following: ‘dissemination of information as to openings in the various dominions of the British Commonwealth for settlers’; ‘the selection and shipping of settlers’; the arrangement for spiritual ministrations on the voyage out and letters of commendatory from the clergy’; ‘the provision, in conjunction with the Church, for the reception, placing, and after-care of these settlers’.

Records of the Church of England Council for Empire Settlement include: various committees’ minutes; annual reports; operational registers; agreements; correspondence.

Church of England Purity Society

The Church of England Purity Society was formed in 1883, following requests on the part of the Church Penitentiary Society, the Lower House of Convocation, Ellice Hopkins and others for a concerted effort to be made by the Church in the field of reformatory work.

The objects, as approved by the Council in February 1884, were:

a) Purity among men
b) A chivalrous respect for womanhood
c) The preservation of the young from contamination
d) Rescue work
e) A higher tone of public opinion

The papers comprise minute books and the Society’s monthly paper, ‘The Vanguard’.

Church Information Office

The Church Information Office was the successor to the Press and Publications Board and the Church Information Board.

CIO was responsible, through the Church Information Committee, to the Standing Committee of the Church Assembly and later General Synod.

The CIO activities included issuing press releases, answering press enquiries, arranging press conferences and facilities. Its publications department was serving as a publisher to the Church Assembly and later General Synod. The Radio and Television section provided services for the programme planners, producers and news editors of BBC and other broadcasters.

The photographic department created a comprehensive library of photographs illustrating various aspects of religious and social life in the UK.

The CIO archive collection reflects all the above listed activities and its photographic library forms a very attractive visual resource.

Selected photographs from the collection are available here.

Clergy Pensions Institution

The Clergy Pensions Institution was conceived as a means to facilitate the retirement of the clergy. Its methods were self-help on the part of individual members of the clergy who purchased an annual subscription, graduated according to age, that secured him an annuity upon retirement at the age of 65. In addition, he would have a claim, on becoming unbeneficed, to a proportionate share in a general fund derived from extraneous sources such as donations or legacies.

The collection includes volumes of signed minute books recording the meetings of the Clergy Pensions Institution (CPI). This includes annual meetings, board meetings and committee meetings of the Institution, among others.

Central Readers’ Board

The 1921 revision of the Regulations of the Convocations recommended the setting up of a Central Readers’ Board to “co-ordinate the organisation in the Dioceses, and to maintain and develop the work of Readers generally, under the authority of the Archbishops and Bishops.” The constitution was approved, and the Board formally established with each diocese to be represented by two members, one of whom must be a lay man. Membership of the Board was voluntary, and its work was financed by contributions from diocesan Readers’ boards and individual private subscriptions.

The Central Readers’ Board provided opportunities for members to meet and discuss common work and problems and aimed to develop consensus and guidance on matters concerning Readers.
The archive includes records generated by the Board’s foundation and its operational activities. Also includes meeting papers, photographs and artefacts.

Ecclesiastical Courts Commission

The Royal Commission was appointed by Letters Patent, dated 28 January 1830, to enquire into the procedures and operations of the Ecclesiastical Courts. The Commission’s recommendations included the abolition of the High Court of Delegates, with its functions transferred to a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, that all ecclesiastical courts below provincial level be abolished, and for the introduction of trial by jury including the admissibility of oral evidence.

Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners archive incorporates the activities of the Church Building Commissioners (1818-56), the Church Estates Commissioners (1850-1936) and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England (1835-1948), and some of the works of the Church Commissioners (from 1948).

Approximately 16,000 linear feet of files, bound volumes, plans and maps reflecting the following activities of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners:

• Management of the preferment estates including bishopric and cathedral estates and its other investments
• Benefice administration including legislation through the Orders In Council implementing changes in the church structure for example the creation and amalgamation of benefices and the regulation of benefice assets for example giving consent to sales of glebe land
• Augmentation of poorer benefices through loans for new parsonage houses and grants in support of clergy stipends
• Financial and administrative support for the development of the ministry of the Bishops and the Cathedrals
• Various ad hoc administrative functions acquired through legislation for example administering the City Church Fund for the Metropolitan area

In 1948 the ECE was merged with Queen Anne’s Bounty forming the Church Commissioners.

Episcopal and Capitular Revenues Commission

The Episcopal and Capitular Revenues Commission was a Royal Commission reporting to Parliament, brought into being in 1849 to examine the issue of the leasing and management of the properties of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and those owned by various Ecclesiastical preferments such as the estates of the bishops and cathedrals. The Commission considered various proposals on how Ecclesiastical lands could be better managed to increase the income for the Church, whilst balancing the rights and needs of the lessees holding the properties at the time. The Commission consisted of Lord Harrowby, Dean Lyall, William Page Wood (later to be known as Lord Hatherly), Robert Armstrong, Richard Jones, the tithes commissioner, and J.G. Shaw Lefevre.

Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Commission

On 4th February 1835, a Royal Commission was appointed to consider the state of the revenues of dioceses in England and Wales, the more even distribution of Episcopal duties, investigate the state of cathedral and collegiate churches and the best means of improving parish ministry and in particular providing for the clergy to reside in their benefices. The Ecclesiastical and Revenues Commission was known as the ‘Ecclesiastical Commission’ and sometimes was called the ‘Church Enquiry Commission’.

The Commission’s proceedings consisted of the Commission hearing witnesses, receiving reports and discussions leading to resolutions that recorded the Commission’s conclusions. The Commission appointed a committee of its members who drafted sections of the report and submitted them for approval by the whole Commission before submitting them to Parliament and their subsequent publication.

House of Bishops

The legislative assemblies of the provinces of Canterbury and York, the convocations of Canterbury and York, have met since the fifteenth century. Each contained two houses: the upper house comprised bishops, the lower house clergy. In 1919, the creation of the National Assembly of the Church of England (otherwise known as the Church Assembly) brought together the two upper houses (the House of Bishops) and the two lower houses (the House of Clergy), which, together with the House of Laity, made up the three houses of the Assembly.

When, in 1970, the Church Assembly was replaced by the General Synod, the Houses of Bishops, Clergy and Laity continued as the three houses of the Synod. Although the upper and lower houses of the two convocations started meeting jointly in the early twentieth century, they also continued to meet separately within their separate convocations.

Hospital Chaplaincies Council

The Hospital Chaplaincies Commission was appointed by the Church Assembly in 1946 to enquire into the Church’s ministration to mentally ill people in institutions, to consult with the Minister of Health re. the future of the provision of such a service in the National Health Service (NHS), the specific training for the role, and the status of chaplains in other types of health institution.

The Council was reconstituted by General Synod in 1972. Its functions were:
a) to consider questions, put to it by General Synod, of spiritual ministration of patients in hospitals.
b) to advise diocesan Bishops and Chaplains’ Advisory Committees on such matters.
c) to monitor such matters in hospitals on behalf of General Synod.
d) to co-ordinate relations between Chaplains’ Advisory Committees.
e) to liaise with the DHSS on such matters.
f) to arrange national training courses for Chaplains.

Julian Hubbard Collection

Six albums of photographs (including notes) on fonts.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Missionary Council of the Church Assembly/Overseas Council of the Church Assembly

The Missionary Council was established in 1921 by the Church Assembly to take the place of the Central Board of Missions, and the first meeting of the Missionary Council was held on 1st February 1922.

At the meeting the general functions of the Council were considered to be with regard to the provision of Missionaries, provision of funds, and ‘overseas problems’. These functions were then extrapolated to cover administrative difficulties, relations with other Missionary Boards, the relationship with missionary work of other Churches and organisation of a home base.

The collection includes records of the Council and its staff. Includes minutes of meetings of the Council and its sub-committees, reports and documents, correspondence, pamphlets and brochures, and financial records in relation to the Funds and Legacies administered by the Council.

Missionary and Ecumenical Council of the Church Assembly

The Missionary and Ecumenical Council (MECCA) was formed by the Church Assembly in February 1963, to continue and develop the work of the Overseas Council (OC) and the Council for Ecumenical Co-operation (CACEC). The purpose of the new Council was to ‘continue and develop work previously carried out by the Overseas Council and the Council for Ecumenical Co-operation’. Some records of the Council can be found in the archive of its successor, the Board for Mission and Unity (search catalogue for BMU).

Comprises records of the Council and its staff, with the collection being a combination of general files and the files created and maintained by the MECCA Secretaries. Included are papers and documents, minutes of meetings of the Council and its sub-Committees, correspondence between MECCA staff and organisations and individuals from both within the Church and externally, reports on subjects related to the work of MECCA, pamphlets and brochures, and some financial records relating to Trusts and Legacies administered by the Council.

Marriage Commission

The Marriage Commission, set up in 1975 under the Chairmanship of the Bishop of Lichfield, grew out of the discussions of earlier Committees and Working Groups, whose papers, along with others, have been kept together in this archive (MRC).

Moral Welfare Council

The Church of England Moral Welfare Council (MWC) was formed in 1938-39, through the amalgamation of the Church of England Advisory Board for Moral Welfare, and the White Cross League. According to the revised constitution of 1939, the aim was to act as a central council of the Church for the ‘co-ordination of thought and action in relation to the place of sex, marriage and the family in the Christian life’. The Council endeavoured to realise this aim by acting as a centre for collecting and circulating information on moral welfare, which encompassed producing its own publications; providing lecturers to visit camps and towns, universities and theological colleges; and to unify the work undertaken in dioceses.

National Society (Church of England) for Promoting Religious Education

The National Society was founded on 16th November 1811 and incorporated by Charter in 1817 as the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor throughout England and Wales.

The bulk of the archive is comprised of a series of 16,000 school files relating to schools in England and in Wales. The files contain applications for National Society Building Grants, supporting papers, annual reports, architectural plans and sometimes the trust deeds.

The archive also includes various minute book series including that of its governing body and a set of annual reports from 1811 onwards.

In addition, the archive contains an extensive collection of the Society’s own publications. These mainly date from the latter half of the 19th century onwards, with books published by the Society’s Depository and also in conjunction with the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK).

Another interesting series are glass plate negatives and positives showing images of school buildings (interiors and exteriors), classes and activities and teaching aids.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Overseas Bishoprics’ Fund

The Colonial Bishoprics’ Fund was created in 1841 to provide ‘for the endowment of bishoprics in such of the foreign possessions of Great Britain as shall be determined upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of the United Church of England and Ireland ‘.

The archive consists of the following:

• records relating to the Fund’s creation and its administration: Council and Standing Committee meeting minutes and correspondence and the Fund’s reports;
• records relating to the financial activities of the Fund: ledgers, cashbooks, financial reports, accounts, investments, payments and related correspondence;
• records relating to the legal activities of the Fund: deeds, letters patent and particular case papers;
• correspondence relating to particular dioceses: usually illustrating creation and endowment of overseas dioceses.

Ordination Candidates Exhibition Fund

The Ordination Candidates Exhibition Fund was a committee formed following an informal meeting in June 1873 with the stated aim:

‘That it is desirable to assist eligible young men desirous of becoming clergymen but lacking the pecuniary means required to obtain the necessary education and for that purpose to raise what funds may be needed’. The archive includes minutes of meetings, Annual Reports and lists of candidates applying for and in receipt of funding.

Prison Chaplains Council

The Prison Chaplaincies Council was constituted after the Report of the second Prisons Commission (see CAA/1958/10), summer 1961, and began its work early in 1962. It was reconstituted as a General Synod body in July 1972. It ceased to exist in February 1976, after which the Board for Social Responsibility set up the Prison Chaplaincies Advisory Group.

Its functions were:
a) To act as a liaison between the Church of England and the Prison Commissioners on all questions relating to spiritual ministration in prisons, borstals and remand and detention centres.
b) To advise the Church Assembly, diocesan Bishops and other persons and bodies connected with the Church of England, on such questions.
c) To consider and promote the supply of suitable applicants for prison chaplaincies.
d) To promote and assist in co-operation with the Prison Commissioners the provision of training for chaplains and prospective chaplains.
e) To advise and assist rural deaneries and parishes in their efforts.

The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the Poor Clergy

The Act of 2 & 3 Anne, c. 11, empowered the Queen to establish a corporation in which would be invested the revenues of first fruits and tenths. The Queen Anne’s Bounty was subsequently founded by a Charter of 1704 and followed by a supplementary Charter of 1714 that amended its rules and constitution and how its officers were to be appointed.

The collection is formed by the surviving archive of the Bounty which includes charters, letters patent, correspondence, working files and parsonage house plans, and reflects the following activities of the QAB:
a) Endowment of benefices and their income
b) Making various types of grants to the poorer benefices including:
• Dilapidations grants
• Improvement of existing and provision of new parsonage houses
• Purchase of glebe land

In 1948 the QAB was merged with Ecclesiastical Commissioners forming the Church Commissioners.

Social and Industrial Council

Reconstituted in 1951. This new revised body was to be called the ‘Social and Industrial Council of the Church Assembly’.

Its functions were to be as follows: ‘to consider social, industrial and economic questions referred to it by the Church Assembly or by the Archbishops’; ‘to bring to the attention of the Church Assembly social, industrial and economic questions, to indicate as far as may be the religious and moral issues involved, and to provide the Assembly, by means of reports its judgement on such questions’.

In 1958 the Council was brought under the supervision of the newly formed Board of Social Responsibility (BSR).

United Boards of Missions of the Provinces of Canterbury and York

The Board of Missions of the Province of Canterbury was established in 1884 following a Resolution by both Houses of Convocation. The Board was created to encourage engagement with missionary work and to explain the Church’s principles on the subject; to provide advice to colonial churches and missionary societies; and to issue reports on ‘the spiritual wants of heathen countries’.

The archive comprises minutes of the joint meetings of the Provincial Boards for the two provinces and subsequently minutes of the meetings of the United Boards and sub-committees.

White Cross League

Papers of the White Cross League and, post 1939, of the White Cross Committee of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council. The White Cross League started life as the White Cross Society in 1883.
The organisation was formed to undertake rescue and preventive work to combat what it saw as threats to the ‘purity’ of society. Unlike many of the organisations tackling prostitution at the time, the White Cross Society concentrated its efforts on men, encouraging them to take responsibility for reducing the phenomenon.