1) Denominational Yearbooks
The library holds back runs of yearbooks and directories of several Christian denominations. Yearbooks of the following denominations are regularly updated: American Baptist Churches in the USA, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, the Religious Society of Friends Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. The Library also regularly updates the American Jewish Yearbook.

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2) Missions Materials: biographies and organizational records
The missions libraries that preceded the current Ecumenical Library collected broadly in missiology. Much of this material dates from the first half of the 20th century, and includes histories of particular geographic missions, and biographies of individual missionaries. The Library also holds the yearbooks and conference proceedings, extending in some cases back into the 19th century, of several missionary societies, including the Home Missions Council, the Evangelical Alliance, and the mission boards of the United Methodist Church and its predecessors in the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Finally, the Library holds selective records and papers from, among other groups, the Episcopal Church Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the International Missionary Council, the Woman's Christian Medical College in Shanghai, and Quessua Schools in Angola.

To access a finding aid to the Library's archive on missions societies, click here (missions.pdf).

To access a finding aid to the Library's archive on the Home Missions Council, click here (homemis.pdf).

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3) Ecumenism
The Library holds selective records that document the history of the Ecumenical Movement in the 20th century. Primary among these are reports from central and divisional offices of the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. The Library owns copies of the official reports from all eight general assemblies of the World Council of Churches, which was founded in 1948. It holds as well the reports from that body's Central Committee, from 1949 to 1977, and selective records from other divisions. The National Council of Churches was founded in 1950. The Library holds materials from the Constituting Convention, most of the triennial and annual reports through 1995, and selective records from the Council's divisions.

The 20th century Ecumenical Movement combines several distinct currents. Preceding the World Council of Churches were the Faith and Order Movement, whose international meetings were at Lausanne (1927) and Edinburgh (1937), and the Life and Work Movement, which met in Stockholm (1925) and Oxford (1937). The Ecumenical Library holds selective reports and records from these meetings. It holds as well both published and unpublished records of the short-lived Interchurch World Movement, from 1919 and 1920.

To access a finding aid to the Library's archive on the Faith and Order Movement, click here (faithord.pdf).

To access a finding aid to the Library's archive on the Life and Work Movement, click here (lifework.pdf

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4) The Harlan Paul Douglass Collection of Religious Research Projects (on microfiche)
Harlan Paul Douglass was a clergyman and academic, who pioneered in the sociological study of Christianity. The collection founded in his name gathers unpublished research reports, from the 1930s through 1960s that examine all aspects of Christianity from the standpoint of the social sciences. The 2200 separately authored documents in the microfiche collection represent the work of 550 scholars. Though dated, the collection constitutes a chapter in the recent history of the scientific study of religion.