Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission to Revise the Church Catechism

Documents, minutes and correspoendence created by the Commission.

In May 1956 the Convocations requested that the Archbishops appoint a joint committee to revise the Catachism, the Archbishops decided that this could best be achieved through a Commission which first met on 8 May 1958. The Commission met on 18 occassions (8 May 1958-20 October 1961; 11 January-26 June 1968; 2 May 1972) and expected to reassemble in 1975 to continue its revisions. The terms of reference for the Commission were: "(1) To consider ther revision of the Church Catechism in order that its scope may be enlarged and its language made more suitable for present conditions. (2) To consult with a panel of laymen and women, members of the Church of England, who are professionally engaged in the teaching og the Christian Religion to children and young people. The Commission is to select the names of persons who might be invited to serve on this panel and to submit them for the approval of the two Archbishops. Subject if necessary to reference to the Archbishops, the Commission shall decide the procedure by which its consultations with the panel shall be conducted. (3) It shall be within the powers of the Commission, if they so desire, to propose in place of our Catechism, two Catechisms, one for children and the other for persons of riper years." The 1960 Report was circulated to members of Convocations. The Chairman was Donald Coggan, Bishop of Bradford until 1961 then Archbishop of York, and the Secretary was the Rev Canon H G G Herklots, until his death between the 17th and 18th meetings.

General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD[G]), 2nd edition, 1999. This collection has been rearranged for the ease of future readers. It is now split according to what iteration of the Commission created or used the documents. The four iterations are described with their starting year 1958, 1968, 1972, and 1977. These series are then split into circulated documents, minutes, correspoendence and other papers.

GS Report: A Revised Catechism, SPCK 1960, PB 98; GS 99 ROP: 1972 (498-505)

Appraisal has been carried out within files according to institutional appraisal guidelines. Where published material has been found it has been passed to the library for incusion in their catalogue, this has generally been noted in the file level record. This has lead to the deletion of some entire files.