The Marjory Stanway Alcove

As many readers of Seed & Harvest know, Trinity’s involvement with Africa goes back to the first Dean/President Alf Stanway and his wife Marjory, who were missionaries in Kenya and Tanzania for many years. In honor of Marjory, who passed away in 2005, Trinity has set aside a place in the library devoted to Africa. The Marjory Stanway Alcove houses a collection of African Bibles, Prayer Books and related materials. The African churches are playing a crucial role in this time of tension and re-formation in the Anglican world; it is hoped that the collection will be a symbol and token of our recognition and gratitude for African faithfulness to the gospel in these difficult times, as well as a useful research tool for the present and the future.

With the help of Trinity staff, faculty, graduates and African students, alumni who are missionaries in Africa, and even Wycliffe Bible Translators, we have begun to assemble a collection.

The first stage, now complete, was to assemble a basic collection of materials by soliciting material and purchasing some of the most inexpensive pieces from online sources. These documents (approximately 300 items thus far) have been cataloged and displayed in the Alcove.

The second stage will be to establish partnerships with Bible Societies and Bible translators in Africa in order to be informed about current work being done and to gain help in acquiring materials as they are published. During this period we will also seek funding from outside sources for the purchase of older and rarer documents. Special attention will be made to assemble materials from every country in Africa (by December 2007), and from every language group (by May 2008).

The third stage, if funding from outside sources is forthcoming, will consist of searching for and acquiring more valuable manuscripts from various periods of the history of the church in Africa, including the ancient church (including if possible examples of the Septuagint [Greek Old Testament], Old Latin, Coptic, Nubian and Ethiopic texts), the Medieval period, the 18th and 19th centuries of missionary expansion, and the modern period.

The collection was dedicated at the May 2007 meeting of the Board of Trustees and is already one of the most important collections of African Bibles and Prayer Books in North America. It is hoped the funding can be found to hold a celebration culminating in an international conference on the translation of the Bible in Africa. The goal is to hold this event in 2011, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible in English.