Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations Office of the General Secretary Records

The unified alphabetical file created in the Office of the General Secretary from 1959 through 1970 (it includes some older items) comprises the major portion of this collection. Adjunct to the main file is a cumulative personnel file, alphabetically arranged, which contains the specialized personnel-related correspondence which would be expected to cross the General Secretary's desk. Executives and missionary-executives are most frequently represented here. The collection includes Smith's moderatorial file and a file of speeches and articles by him.

Topical sections which bulk prominently include the "Advisory Study Committee", a UPCUSA task force which examined the changing role and direction of foreign missions during the early 1960's, and the "Malone (initially Lake Forrest) Consultation" papers for the years 1960-67. This unique annual conference of representatives of main-line Protestant and conservative evangelical churches was a very subtle, even confidential attempt to effect a greater degree of understanding and cooperation between the two groups. Smith was Secretary of the Consultation during these years, and the important correspondence and conference papers which he kept with the main file may form the only comprehensive record of a little-known phase in the ecumenical movement.

A considerable quantity of pre-1952 material is interspersed in certain instances, some as background material, but primarily as the residue of similar files which Dr. Smith created early in his work with the Board.

The collection is arranged as follows:

SERIES 1: ALPHABETICAL FILE, 1943-1970 Boxes 1-11

SERIES 2: MODERATORIAL YEAR, 1968-1969 Box 11

SERIES 3: ADVISORY STUDY COMMITTEE, 1960-1962 Box 12

SERIES 4: MALONE CONSULTATIONS, 1962-1970 Box 12

SERIES 5: PERSONNEL FILES (RESTRICTED) Boxes 13-15

SERIES 6: WRITINGS, 1937-1971 Box 16

SERIES 7: SMITH PERSONAL FILE, 1948-1971 Box 17

Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1980
Robert A. Goldstein, Assistant Records Researcher

Finding aid revised: March 1992
Stephanie Muntone, Processing Archivist