An End, And A Beginning
For nearly half a century, The Christian Challenge (TCC) magazine offered broad coverage and analysis of Anglican/Episcopal affairs from the orthodox viewpoint, chronicling a pivotal period in church history (1962-2008) that has seen a significant and widening realignment in response to liberal revisionism in the North American Church.
Sponsored by the non-profit Foundation for Christian Theology (FCT), The Challenge was the fruit of an encounter at the 1961 General Convention by a small group of concerned Episcopalians who decided they needed a means of defending the historic faith, which they discerned - even then - was under threat within their church.
What began as a four page, mimeographed newsletter became a full-fledged magazine, known for reporting information not found in the official church press, under founding editor Dorothy Allen Faber. Subsequent editors have been Fr. Louis E. Traycik (1982-85) and Mrs. Auburn Faber Traycik, a journalism graduate of the University of Texas, who oversaw the publication between 1986 and 2008.
The Anglican Archbishop of the Southern Cone, Gregory Venables, is among those who hailed TCC for its “comprehensive and reliable reporting,” and its uniqueness among conservative Anglican publications, due to it independence, unusual longevity, and the fact that it has long tracked both establishment and extramural Anglicanism.
Even some who do not share all of TCC’s theological commitments have found it of singular value. On the occasion of the magazine’s 40th anniversary in 2002, Pamela W. Darling, ThD – a church historian formerly on the Episcopal General Convention staff - wrote that back copies of The Challenge “are invaluable primary sources for understanding responses to 20th century changes in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.” The magazine “continues to impress me with [its] breadth of coverage –people, movements, issues – and a level of detail not available anywhere else,” Dr. Darling wrote.
It is this matchless wealth of reporting that the FCT Board is now endeavoring to ensure will not be lost to future generations.
The Archiving Project: Hoping To “Speak To The Future From The Past”
Although the FCT Board announced in December 2008 that it had made the hard decision to suspend publication of The Challenge - citing chiefly the impact of Internet communications and significant flux within the conservative Anglican movement - (see our press release here) – the Foundation seeks to serve the movement in other ways.
An online news and commentary service may be launched in 2009, if there are significant indications of financial support. Meanwhile, this website will continue to be maintained, with the general aim of making it a bit more up to date. (We appreciate your patience as we work on this.)
Chiefly, however, the FCT Board invites your kind support for a project it believes is vital to orthodox Anglicans - one that would seek to make The Challenge’s reporting of nearly 50 years of critical church history more easily usable for research. This would allow the magazine to “speak to the future Church from the past,” said FCT President Wallace Spaulding.
Currently, there is no way to access TCC’s vast body of reporting and analysis in any way convenient to research. Complete or nearly-complete sets of the magazine are not easily available in hardcopy or on microfilm, and only about five years of issues are online. More importantly, there is no index or thoroughgoing index function by which to search past editions for particular material (as all available funding up to now has been needed to publish the magazine).
The aim of the FCT’s archiving project, slated to be overseen by Mrs. Traycik, would be to employ technology and other methods to enable anyone seeking information on a subject relevant to Anglicanism between 1962 and 2008 to get relatively easy and low-cost access to everything TCC has reported on it. If funding allows, the preferred approach would be to get all of TCC’s nearly 47 years of editions online and make them searchable as to subject matter electronically and/or by a manually prepared index. The FCT is currently seeking financial support for this significant undertaking from TCC’s subscribers and other sources.
The archiving project “aims to make available to untold numbers of future generations The Challenge’s reporting of the ecclesiastical epoch that so many TCC readers and other co-religionists have been part of and witnessed,” said Col. Spaulding. “Lest TCC’s important contribution to illuminating that history be lost, we are praying for generous support for this endeavor. “
Donations and pledges in support of the archiving project (tax deductible for U.S. donors) may be offered via this website (click HERE) or be directed to The Foundation for Christian Theology, 1215 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003-1445.
Supporters also can help facilitate the archiving project by placing an order for an advertisement to appear on this website, or for their parish to be listed in the CHURCH DIRECTORY to be made available on this site. All ads are subject to TCC’s ad policy, and should not exceed 250 words. An ad placement or parish listing is available for $150 for six months or $225 for a year. Please follow the instructions on our response form HERE. Alternately, please e-mail your ad text, or prepared ad, with contact information, to info@challengeonline.org, and send your payment to the Washington address listed in the foregoing paragraph.
For further information, contact Wallace Spaulding at 703/243-4923 or Auburn Traycik at atraycik@aol.com or 202/547-5409.
