













































Fostering Virtue-Driven Information Literacy


123

Beyond Mere Denominationalism 
in Atla
Exploring Ways to Enhance Professional 
Development and Resource Sharing in 
Theological Librarianship
T. Patrick Milas, Director of the Gardner A. Sage Library and Assistant 
Professor of Theological Research & Bibliography, New Brunswick 
Theological Seminary
David Kriegh, Head of Collection Management, Saint Mary’s College of 
California 
Robin McCall, Seminary Librarian, Union Presbyterian Seminary 
Alison Poage, Harrison Library Director, Seminary of the Southwest 
Karl Stutzman, Director of Library Services, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical 
Seminary 

ABSTR ACT: It’s not every professional association whose structure 
includes denominations. Why does Atla? What are these denomina-
tions, and how do they connect with Atla’s member institutions and 
organizational aims? In this panel paper, T. Patrick Milas surveys the 
history of Atla’s theological and faith-based aspects, with a focus on 
denominational groups and related conference worship/devotions. 
This is followed by a question-and-answer session with panelists 
representing the Anglican/Episcopal, Anabaptist/Mennonite, Roman 
Catholic, and Presbyterian/Reformed denominational groups. Each 
representative discusses different aspects of their involvement and 
activities within denominational groups along with their perspectives 
on the activities, needs, and strengths of these groups, to discern and 
inspire their group’s denominational identities and role within Atla.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DENOMINATIONAL GROUPS IN ATLA

T. Patrick Milas
When I first joined Atla in 2006 I noticed there were various events 
on the conference program that sounded like spiritual edification of 



124    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

some kind, such as “Worship in the Anglican Tradition,” and some 
groups that had religious-sounding affiliations, such as the Anabaptist 
and Mennonite denominational group. Over the years I’ve attended 
many morning worship events sponsored by denominational groups 
other than my own. But I haven’t attended others’ meetings, nor 
have I scoured their minutes, which may or may not be a good 
reflection of what they actually do. Out of curiosity, I invited some 
of our colleagues who serve on various denominational groups to 
discuss what we are and what we do, and what we might be able to 
do if we knew more about each other. 

But first, some background is in order. After searching the 
Summary of Proceedings from 1948 to 2017 for any references to 
the terms denominations, denominational, denominational group, 
denominational meeting, denominational report, worship, devotions, 
meditation, and invocation, I was able to identify some milestones, 
some trends, and a plethora of collaborative spirit. 

In 1947, 51 librarians met in Louisville, Kentucky, to establish the 
American Theological Library Association (ATLA). Participants hailed 
from stand-alone seminaries, divinity schools at major universities, 
and a variety of Protestant denominations. In 1948 they assembled 
as the Second Annual Conference of ATLA, at which there was a 
“devotional period” but no denominational group meetings (ATLA 
1948, 1). But as early as 1949, the ATLA Summary of Proceedings 
demonstrates that members were thinking and publishing about 
the “Values of Denominational Bibliography,” and continuing to 
offer spiritual devotion as part of the regular conference program 
(ATLA 1949, 21). Edward Starr, Librarian at Crozer Theological 
Seminary, wrote, 

The fact that we have denominations, and are likely to have 
them for some time to come, can give us ground on which to stand. 
Denominational schools, and denominational foundations are sta-
bilizing factors. . . . A carefully constructed denominational bibliog-
raphy can tell us where we came from; how we lived, thought, and 
felt. It can indicate what we hope for, and perhaps even what we 
may achieve. . . . In all our pursuits may we seek, in the words of 
John Cotton Dana, “to hold the eel of wisdom by the tail…. May these 
bibliographical endeavors help to that purpose.” (Starr 1949, 21–27)



Conversation Groups    125

Our panel presentation hopes that by exploring these denomi-
nationally informed endeavors we may further help discern and 
inspire our bibliographical identities. 

As in 1949, there was one instance of morning “devotions” in 
1950 (ATLA 1950, 1). And between 1951 and 1953, there were two 
instances per conference. By 1955, “devotions” were referred to as 
“worship,” and offered every day of the conference (ATLA 1955, 1, 24, 
69). In 1956 we have the first Index to Proceedings, but to that date, 
“denomination” does not appear in the Index to Proceedings (Chicago 
Area Theological Librarians 1956, 86–92). Nor have “denominational 
meetings” appeared on any agendas. In 1957, a single morning service 
was called simply “meditations” (ATLA 1957, 1). In 1958, worship 
was foregone (or undocumented) and a Lutheran bibliography was 
presented (Schmidt 1958, 8–24).

In 1959, there were “invocations” each day of the conference. The 
invocations were provided by representatives of Baptist, Methodist, 
and Episcopal seminaries, respectively (ATLA 1959, v). So 1959 was 
a milestone for ATLA. The 1959 Annual Conference also featured 
a paper, “A Preliminary Survey of Some of the Existing Patterns of 
Intra-denominational Library Cooperation in the United States” 
by Roscoe Pierson, Librarian at the College of the Bible. (Pierson 
1959, 139–146). (College of the Bible would later become known as 
Lexington Theological Seminary.) By 1960, ATLA seems to have set 
its standard for using a variety of terms for faith-related events such 
as “devotions” and “invocations.”

Also in 1960, a Committee on Denominational Resources was 
formed, formalizing two years of informal work by the Chair Niels 
Sonne of General Seminary. The Committee prepared and distributed 
a survey to all ATLA institutional members and church historical 
societies. It asked about denominational collecting policies and 
intra-denominational cooperation on denominational resources. 
The primary purpose was to inform a guide for all denominational 
resources. The secondary purpose was to provide material for 
Pierson’s paper on denominational collections for the theological 
libraries issue of Library Trends (Sonne et al. 1960, 16–17). These are 
major milestones in the history of not just ATLA, but collaboration 
in theological librarianship. 



126    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

The Committee on Denominational Resources continued to appear 
in the conference program in 1961, but by 1962 it was not fruitful. 
In 1963, it was disbanded. The Chair Niels Sonne respectfully sub-
mitted that, “in view of the fact that this project has been in being 
since 1957, and that it has been impossible to produce any useful 
results, it is recommended that the Executive Committee dismiss the 
Committee on Denominational Resources” (Sonne 1963, 12).

Ironically, at the very same conference that year, ATLA’s denomi-
national groups make their first appearance! Indeed, on the first day 
of the conference, after the first session, ATLA members split into 
denominational and area groups at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 18, 
1963 (ATLA 1963, ix). I think we can earnestly point to that date and 
time as the first documented meetings of our ATLA denominational 
groups. 

Denominational groups convened again in 1964 alongside interest 
groups (which seemed to replace “area groups” in programming). 
Specific denominations were not identified in the program (ATLA 
1964, ix). The 1965 Annual Conference brought two new types of 
events to ATLA: a memorial and the reading of a telegram. The 
President read a telegram from the Catholic Library Association: 
“Greetings from the Catholic Library Association” (ATLA 1965, 3). 
It’s relevant to note that several Roman Catholic institutions were 
already attending the ATLA conferences at this time. 

And yet in 1966, when ATLA’s denominational groups were docu-
mented for the first time with specific denominational names, and 
“conveners” appearing in the conference program, there were no 
Roman Catholic denominational groups. The denominational groups 
consisted of the following: 

• Baptist (Calvin C. Turpin, Convener)
• Disciples (David McWhirter, Convener)
• Episcopalian (Thomas Edward Camp, Convener)
• Lutheran (John Heussman, Convener)
• Methodist (Elizabeth Royer, Convener)
• Presbyterian and Reformed (Ernest White, 

Convener)
• and “Other groups by arrangement” (ATLA 1966, xi)



Conversation Groups    127

It must have served some use to have these meetings, because they 
were given some precedence; after a Presidential welcome, assem-
bling into denominational groups was the first order of business at 
the Twentieth Annual Conference, to be followed by presentations 
of papers, budget meetings etc. 

From 1967 to 1969, the “Original Six” (or “OS” as I refer to them) 
appeared consistently in the conference agenda, alternating who 
was the convener (and how the word convenor was spelled). In 
Essays in Celebration of the First Fifty Years, there is a note that 
Roman Catholic institutions were not participating until the late 
1960s: “Since Roman Catholic participation in ATLA began in the late 
1960s, the first twenty-five years of the Association history is pre-
dominantly Protestant” (Hurd 1996, 22). My review of the Summary 
of Proceedings 1966–1969 confirms that during those initial years, 
the denominational groups’ infrastructure did not include Roman 
Catholic institutions. 

But in 1970, ATLA finally welcomed the Catholic denominational 
group to the Association, with Fr. John Shellem as the first Convenor. 
That year, in President Harold B. Prince’s Address, we read:

Today as we begin our twenty-fourth year of living we are facing the ques-
tion of whether ATLA can move forward more rapidly and more efficiently 
by altering its structure. . . I hope we will make changes in our operation. 
. . [including] broader participation in the conferences and in the life of 
the association. . . But as we get at these things, I hope we will not lose, or 
even diminish, the friendliness and camaraderie that is so much a part of 
our association’s life. I have heard our conferences denigrated as “mere 
fellowship.” If it is true that in this day of tension, of strained relationships, 
of talking at rather than talking with, we have a koinonia here—and I 
believe it is true—then it is indeed a pearl richer than all our tribe. I hope 
we will not let ourselves cast it away. (Prince 1970, 86).

In 1970, they wondered about their identity as a professional associa-
tion and about “mere fellowship” as a problem. In 2024, let us interro-
gate whether or how we might best transcend our inherited structure 
of denominational groups and go beyond mere denominationalism.  

But first, we have a few more decades of history. In 1972, the 
United Church of Christ group appears for the first time (ATLA 1972, 
4). In 1973, denominational groups themselves got short shrift in 
the Summary of Proceedings, but there was a Love Feast, and the 
new Index to the Summary of Proceedings 1947–1972 took great care 



128    ATL A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

to delineate denominational resources (Jeschke 1973, 171–189). In 
1974 and 1975, denominational group names appear in the agenda, 
without conveners’ names or reports, and worship was absent from 
the program both years. 

But in 1976, one of my own mentors, Norman Kansfield (one of 
the few ATLA members who had a PhD in Information Science), led 
worship every morning of the conference, and the denominational 
groups were back on the agenda (ATLA 1976, 1–3). In 1977 there 
were denominational meetings but no worship. In 1978 there was 
chapel every morning, and ambiguous “denominational meetings,” 
undifferentiated by denomination or convener (ATLA 1976, 2).

By 1980, contact information for the denominational group con-
veners appears for the first time. What were they thinking? Perhaps 
that ATLA members could wish to be in touch with conveners of 
relevant groups, perhaps even outside of their own denomination. 
Who knows if maybe even the public would be interested? Alas, 
only the Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterian-Reformed, and Roman 
Catholic groups provided contact information. The year 1980 was 
also a substantial milestone for documenting the goings-on at the 
various denominational cabals: their reports appear for the first 
time in the Summary of Proceedings (ATLA 1980, 109–115).

The history of the denominational groups is at times three steps 
forward and two steps back, since in 1981 denominational meet-
ings are present in the agenda, but no convener information is 
provided, and there are no reports. (How can you request a report 
from someone you don’t know how to contact? I don’t know.) In 
other big news that year, the first student members participated. 
Maybe the powers that be didn’t want to scare off the new library 
school students with all the denominational bravado! But what the 
Summary of Proceedings showed through 1982 was vague references 
to denominational meetings and no reports. 

Come 1983, denominational groups appear by name in the 
Summary of Proceedings table of contents (ATLA 1983, iv) and con-
tact information is included in the Summary of Proceedings reports 
section (93–95). Campbell-Stone appears first in 1983. And there are 
references to tangential groups, such as the Methodist Librarians 
Fellowship and the Presbyterian/Reformed Library Association. From 
1984 to 1989, the denominational groups appear consistently in the 



Conversation Groups    129

Summary of Proceedings and in the conference program; and they 
sponsored a variety of worship at annual conferences. What’s more, 
the level of participation and extent of the reports from denomina-
tional groups usually exceeded those of other committees, including 
problem groups, task forces, area groups and interest groups. The 
denominational groups were an active and productive phenomenon, 
but were they useful? Well, they continued into the 1990s. 

The 1991 program included a great variety of spiritual oppor-
tunities, with Matins and Compline bookending the first day of 
the conference, a memorial service the second day, and liturgy of 
word and eucharist with string quartet the third day (ATLA 1991, 
18–23). In 1993 the Orthodox Librarians denominational group first 
appears (ATLA 1993, 102). The ATLA choir was active throughout 
the 1990s, with denominational groups content continuing to out-
pace the content from interest groups, even Technical Services and 
Automation up to 1993. 

In 1994, interest groups’ contributions to the work of the 
Association ballooned, far exceeding the reports of the denomina-
tional groups in the Summary of Proceedings (ATLA 1994, 93–116). The 
1995 conference offered the first worship in the African Methodist 
Episcopal Tradition, with Renita Weems of Vanderbilt preaching 
(ATLA 1995, 3).

In the late 1990s, the names of the groups varied. Sometimes 
there was an Anglican group, sometimes Anglican and Episcopal. In 
1997, there is the first meeting of the Anabaptist/Mennonite group 
(ATLA 1997, 5), held at a different time than the other groups (as 
Karl Stutzman elaborates upon in the question-and-answer portion 
below). The conference in 1999 offered the most worship, with four 
full services (ATLA 1999, 329–340). And with the addition of a “Non-
Denominational denominational group,” the denominational groups 
once again outnumber the interest groups of ATLA in number (ATLA 
1999, 4) and reporting productivity (ATLA 1999, 117–123, 319–328).

In 2000, the denominational groups are given an hour and fif-
teen minutes to meet, and meetings started at 7 p.m. New member 
breakfasts were scheduled right before morning worship (ATLA 
2000, 2–3). In 2001, the denominational groups are given an hour 
and half to meet and meetings started at 3:30 p.m. (ATLA 2001, 
3–4). In 2002 and 2003, denominational groups reporting overtakes 



130    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

interest group reporting in terms of quantity of content (ATLA 
2002, 65–71, 269–276; ATLA 2003, 4–45, 229–235); Quaker worship 
appears (237–239); and “Prayer at ATLA Banquet” (by John Trotti) 
officially appears in the program (Atla 2003, 249)! In 2004, the 
denominational meetings were scheduled at the same time as the 
International Collaboration Committee Meeting (ATLA 2004, 4). 
Why did the International Collaboration Committee meeting have 
to compete with denominational meetings? What if someone wished 
to participate in both, or multiple? 

By 2005, there was more going on in the interest groups than 
the denominational groups, and sadly, the number of memorials 
outnumbered both types of groups’ coverage in the 59th Annual 
Conference’s Summary of Proceedings. It was a year of generational 
change in ATLA, as many Lifetime Members had passed on (ATLA 
2005, vi). The 2007 Annual Conference doesn’t stand out particularly 
in terms of faith-related events or denominational groups trajecto-
ries, but it happened to be the first conference for me personally. I 
will confess I did not attend any of the worship services, but I did 
attend the Presbyterian denominational group. 

The year 2008 was the low point for denominational groups 
submitting reports to the Summary of Proceedings, with only the 
Baptists, Lutherans, and UCC folks doing so (ATLA 2008, 367–368). In 
2009, the Pentecostal Worship service conflicted with the Diversity 
Committee Breakfast (ATLA 2009, 3). 

The year 2012 stands out as a year when Anglicans, Episcopalians, 
Orthodox, and Methodists either did not attend the conference, or 
did not meet as denominational groups, or met but did not report 
on their meetings. With such a liturgical desert, something inter-
esting happened called a “Spiritual Discipline of Meditation” and a 
“Spiritual Discipline of Service” (ATLA 2012, 302–309).

The year 2013 appears to be the last time the Atla Hymn was 
sung (ATLA 2013, 7). It was also the only year when there was a 
joint Presbyterian and Evangelical worship service (ATLA 2013, 4). 
In 2015, the worship services were concurrent! You could either go 
Buddhist, Catholic, or Disciples of Christ, but nothing in between 
(ATLA 2015, 5). 



Conversation Groups    131

The 2016 Annual Conference marked the first worship in the 
Jewish tradition (ATLA 2016, 1). And in 2017, with just two inter-
est groups reporting (World Religions and Technical Services) and 
five denominational groups reporting (Baptist, Campbell-Stone, 
Lutheran, Methodist, and Catholic), the interest groups’ reports and 
denominational groups’ reports were extracted from the Summary of 
Proceedings, and moved to an online-only publication called the Atla 
Annual Yearbook. From 2018 to the present, the events and minutes 
of the groups have grown in number, complexity, and content, yet 
continue to appear only in the Atla Annual Yearbook. 

For many years—and now in 2024—worship has been scheduled 
only first thing in the morning, before member breakfasts (at 7 a.m.), 
without hybrid setup or support. Even in 2022, denominational groups 
met in person when they could, but those are now only online. So 
the denominational groups have a long, storied history, but some of 
the age-old questions about our groups functioning for “mere fel-
lowship” or as mere siloes abide to this day. But I have every faith 
that our distinguished panelists will help us to better understand 
our story, current context, and future possibilities. 

PANEL DISCUSSION

• The program then moved to the panel portion:
• T. Patrick Milas—moderator
• Alison Poage—Anglican & Episcopal
• Karl Stutzman—Anabaptist & Mennonite
• David Kriegh—Roman Catholic
• Robin McCall—Presbyterian & Reformed

QUESTION 1. DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE DENOMINATIONAL GROUP 
TO WHICH YOU BELONG PERSONALLY? OR DO YOU REPRESENT YOUR 
INSTITUTION AT ITS DENOMINATIONAL GROUP MEETINGS? OR BOTH?

Alison Poage
Hi, everyone. Thank you, Patrick, for a great introduction to that his-
tory of the denominational group. Yes, I do belong to the denomina-
tional group to which I belong personally, because I think my calling 
to come to an Episcopal seminary was also a calling to become an 
Episcopalian. I didn’t realize that at the time, but I was Roman Catholic 



132    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

and was received by the Episcopal Church shortly after starting at 
Seminary of the Southwest. However, that didn’t mean that I knew 
everything that I needed to know to work in the Anglican/Episcopal 
setting! Attending the denominational meetings was very helpful to 
me at the time, and as you’ll learn, it continues to be.

Robin McCall
Hi, I really enjoyed that introduction—I learned a lot from that. 
Thank you, Patrick. I am different: I work for an institution affili-
ated with the Presbyterian Church USA, but my own background is 
Baptist. I inherited the chair position of the Presbyterian/Reformed 
group from my predecessor, Christopher Richardson, who was the 
seminary librarian before me here, but he wasn’t Presbyterian 
either— he was Quaker. So we have a long history, I guess—at least 
two people—of not being Presbyterian/Reformed, but heading up 
this denominational group.

Karl Stutzman
Thanks, Patrick, for the intro. Our denominational group (Anabaptist-
Mennonite) already met on Zoom, and in the meeting, Eileen Saner, 
who is my predecessor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 
remembered starting the Anabaptist-Mennonite group in 1997. So 
having this history handy to share with her was really cool. I do 
participate in the denominational group that I belong to person-
ally, and personally work for, etc. That’s not totally common for our 
group, as I’ll get into later, but that’s where I’m at.

David Kriegh
First off, thank you, Patrick, for the introduction. It’s really humbling 
to hear the history of denominationalism all the way up to now, 
and I sort of think of the Catholic group as in the second half of the 
book on the story, and then my parts like somewhere in the index 
way at the end, so it’s like I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. 
I’m kind of a combination of my colleagues here: I am personally 
Episcopalian, and look at me now—I’m convening the Catholic group. 
I did not swim the Tiber, whereas Alison swam the Thames or the 
Potomac, whatever they want to call that. But that is the number 
one question I get, too: what do you choose to do as far as what 



Conversation Groups    133

group you want to be a part of? And the easy answer for me is that 
I love my fellow Catholics in employment. I was in a situation in 
my seminary where I was one of only two non-Catholics working 
there. But it was still a welcoming space, and I found a welcoming 
space here as well, and I found this particular group is really where 
my energy was at. That’s why I chose to gravitate to that group. No 
disrespect to the Anglicans!

QUESTION 2. DOES YOUR DENOMINATIONAL GROUP SUPPORT OR 
INSPIRE YOU PERSONALLY?

David Kriegh
It’s kind of nice when the first question just leads into the second 
question, organically. The denominational group definitely inspires 
me a lot here. The number one reason to the question people ask, 
why do I keep coming to this conference: I’ve since left the seminary 
that I was working at, a lot of changes happened, and I’m techni-
cally adjacent to the realm of theological librarianship now. I also 
want to credit Carisse [Berryhill] for getting me to come in the first 
place. It’s my tenth time here, I owe a lot to her for that. But I was 
considering the Catholic group the main attraction when I came 
here. I love when we get together in person. I’m still mourning the 
loss of going to an event for our business, plus going out to din-
ner, making the reservations, everything like that. I feel that what 
inspires me is within a small-enough group for me. I’m the kind of 
person that likes to work within a small group. Not to say we’re a 
tiny group, either, but we’re a subset of Atla, and that helps with the 
ideas percolating the conversation. I always look forward to seeing 
everyone. I’m always overjoyed when I see Stephen [Sweeney], or 
Connie [Song], and the others there. That really keeps me coming 
back. It really does inspire me personally. Yes, it does.

QUESTION 3. DOES YOUR DENOMINATIONAL GROUP STEWARD 
DENOMINATION-SPECIFIC RESOURCES OR PROGRAMS? IF SO, HOW? 

Alison Poage
A subset within the Anglican denominational group has started a 
conversation about our holdings of diocesan journals in the Episcopal 



13 4    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

Church. We got underway earlier this year. It was Dr. Romulus 
Stefanut from the School of Theology at Sewanee and Dr. Mitzi Budde 
from Virginia Theological Seminary, and her colleague Jim Fitch, 
and my colleague, Duane Carter. We started talking about which 
diocesan journals and newsletters we are currently holding, where 
do we have overlap, and where might we consider—we’re still in 
the early stages of this, we’re just talking—having an institutional 
commitment to retaining certain diocesan journals; and might we 
share any journals that we have here that maybe fills in a run of 
journals that another institution is missing. So that was work that 
is not necessarily new to everybody. I think it’s something that’s 
been done in the history of our denominational group. But we’re 
rekindling this kind of conversation right now, and on a small level. 
We received a donation here of what we call “The Red Book” in the 
Episcopal Church (the Episcopal Church Annual), and I just sent a 
box of those over to Sewanee because they could use an extra copy 
of certain years. I’m excited to see this kind of cooperation in the 
Anglican denominational group getting going at this time.

Robin McCall
This question was a really great opportunity for me to do some net-
working with people who have chaired the Presbyterian/Reformed 
group in the past. So I spoke with Virginia Dearborn, who’s here today 
and also with Jim Pakala, who was the chair for some time, and sev-
eral other folks along the way. We don’t officially steward anything 
specific in terms of denominational resources currently. But there 
have been times in the past when members of the denominational 
group have worked together to create finding aids for the very sort 
of thing that Alison’s talking about—denomination-specific resources 
that maybe different libraries hold—so that we know where to find 
certain things, or who has an institutional repository for certain 
items. And that’s something that would be really valuable to do again.

QUESTION 4. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR DENOMINATIONAL GROUP 
COMMUNICATE? 

Alison Poage
Well, we communicate really well because Patrick Milas organizes 
us. He’s our chair right now and will help schedule our meeting that’s 



Conversation Groups    135

going to take place as part of this conference. We also have the list-
serv that Atla runs for us, which has been a useful tool. It was used 
recently to help plan the service that took place at the conference in 
Long Beach, and it’s how we heard, for example, that Dr. Mitzi Budde 
is retiring this year after 33 years of working at Virginia Theological 
Seminary. So, just because I was helping to present this panel, I was 
noting how the listserv is a communication tool to communicate big 
news. I know I also feel inspired, as Robin was saying. As I’ve been 
reflecting on preparing for this panel, I can think of more ways that 
I would use the listserv in the future. You may see some more posts 
from me, those of you that are on that listserv.

QUESTION 5. WHAT CONCERNS ARE YOUR DENOMINATIONAL GROUP 
CURRENTLY FACING? 

Robin McCall
In this one, I looked back through the group minutes in the Yearbook, 
and I found this—this was from last year, which was the year that I 
became the chair—and we wrote, “one challenge is that many people 
working at Presbyterian or Reformed schools are not themselves 
members of those denominational groups” (Dearborn 2023, 50). So 
that was something we already talked about—that several people 
in our group find themselves in that position. This has led to very 
low participation numbers in the denominational group, and a 
relative lack of interest in the group, as time has gone by. There are 
just fewer and fewer people working in Reformed and Presbyterian 
seminaries who are themselves Reformed/Presbyterian, which 
is interesting. I think I saw in the record that Patrick was putting 
together, that we haven’t had a Presbyterian or Reformed Worship 
service at Atla since 2001, which is surprising. I feel it would be 
helpful to have some procedures in place for passing on group 
leadership. You know, succession planning for the denominational 
group, have a vice chair who will step into the leadership position 
after two years, or something like that so you don’t have someone 
who’s inheriting a chair position for a denominational group that 
they’ve never participated in before. If they are just new in the 
field, they won’t have access to experience or knowledge about the 
group’s purpose or history. So that is one of the questions: how do 
we get people involved in this group? Or do we encourage them to 



136    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

go participate in the denominational group for the denomination of 
which they’re a part, and figure out other ways to get people involved 
in the Presbyterian/Reformed group? Do we do both? I don’t know. 
That’s all the issues that we’re currently facing.

Patrick Milas
Thanks so much, Robin. And I’d just like to add, there were some 
documents circulating among panelists to prepare for today—
and I will own this—I might have indicated there hadn’t been 
worship in explicitly the Reformed tradition, and I was thinking 
of the (Dutch) Reformed tradition, that my own seminary (New 
Brunswick Seminary) represents. I can affirm there have certainly 
been Presbyterian worship services offered much more recently 
than 2001. 

QUESTION 6. CAN YOU SHARE ANY EXPERIENCES OF MENTORSHIP, 
COLLABORATION, OR LEADERSHIP YOU’VE HAD WITHIN YOUR 
DENOMINATION GROUP? 

Alison Poage
Yes, I can. 2015 was the first Atla conference that I attended, in 
Denver, and at the time I was making a transition from working in 
the public library setting to an academic library setting and a theo-
logical setting. So, as you can imagine, it was a time when a lot of 
learning had to happen in a very short amount of time. I remember 
going to the Anglican denominational group and walking into the 
room and feeling a sense of welcome and relaxed camaraderie and 
collegiality going on. In preparation for this panel, I decided to see 
what the Summary of Proceedings in 2015 said, since Patrick did 
this great overview of it. I went to the Summary of Proceedings of 
that year for the Anglican denominational group, and it said that 
there were three seminaries represented: Sewanee and Virginia 
Theological Seminary and Seminary of the Southwest. And the 
members shared personal news with one another and “welcomed 
new member Alison Poage to the group” (Poage 2015, 338). So then 
I realized I actually wrote that, because—talk about standing on 
the shoulders of giants, as David said!—I could see that I was in the 
room with these folks that had a great deal of experience. I think 
I volunteered to take the minutes out of a desire to be helpful in 



Conversation Groups    137

some way! I took the minutes, and that was that day in 2015. But 
that face-to-face meeting Jim Dunkly, and Mitzi Budde—the value 
of that could never really be expressed.

And I shared earlier that we’re working on this shared resource 
project with diocesan journals. It is because of that meeting that day 
and because of connecting with those people. I couldn’t go in-person 
to the conferences immediately after that. But those relationships 
had formed. And then, later on, when we transitioned to Zoom dur-
ing COVID, I actually was able to rekindle those relationships—it felt 
to me we were seeing each other more often, it was easier for me to 
attend those online denominational meetings. So I’m very grateful 
for the denominational group. There are a lot of different arms of 
Atla. The interest groups are also great, and these smaller groups 
maybe can be a way to welcome people into the Atla work, and for 
me that was certainly what the Anglican denominational group did 
for me. So I’m grateful.

David Kriegh
Mentorship, collaboration, leadership. Well, right from the begin-
ning to when I went to my first conference, they paired me off with 
someone to introduce me to the conference—that was Stephen 
Sweeney—so that was a really nice introduction. And I feel like the 
collaboration we talk about—what we’re going to do at our meet-
ings—and I remember one year [2017], we’re all sitting in on different 
sessions and stuff, but no one in the room in our denominational 
meeting was up front. So I kind of made my exhortation: I said, “In 
2018, in Indianapolis, let’s present more.” I think we had like five 
Catholic focus presentations from that. So that was really powerful, 
to have that happen. And really reflecting on how we were able to 
share out rather than compartmentalize Catholic formation in the 
context of Atla, that was a really powerful thing. We also talked 
in our meetings about ongoing things we’ve had. One of the other 
questions kind of touched on is the programs that we’ve kind of 
shepherded through to Atla: currently, CRRA is the big one right 
now (the Catholic Research Resources Alliance) being absorbed into 
Atla, but also earlier on, when I first started, it was CPLI [Catholic 
Periodical & Literature Index], going from being a separate product 
into being absorbed by Atla. And there was a lot of consternation 
over that. A lot of private meetings on the side, shall we say, outside 



138    ATL A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

of the denominational meeting, were held to ensure worried people 
about what might happen from that.

We even had the experience of the CLA (Catholic Library 
Association) becoming very, very unsteady, and it seemed like their 
future was in doubt. There was some consideration of whether our 
group could absorb some of that, and ultimately, we said no. We 
needed CLA to be its own entity, and I’ve noticed since then they 
are reinventing themselves a lot. It’s also important to know when 
we can’t do something. But there’s a lot of can-do attitude in our 
meetings. I’m grateful for all of that.

QUESTION 7. WHAT ROLE DOES OR MIGHT YOUR DENOMINATIONAL 
GROUP SERVE IN SUPPORT OF ATLA’S BROADER MISSION? 

Robin McCall
Okay, I’ve brainstormed a few ideas here. For one thing, it is very 
important to preserve the opportunity to record memorials—things 
that are happening that are important in our area of librarianship, of 
religious study, scholarship just in general. For example, this week we 
lost Sam Valentine, who was the Professor Emeritus of Old Testament 
here at Union Presbyterian Seminary, and a wonderful Hebrew Bible 
scholar and a mentor to me, and a parent to me. And that’s impor-
tant for our school, it’s important for our library, because he was a 
big supporter of our library. It’s also important for people in Atla to 
know when we’re losing scholars or when we’re seeing changes in 
scholarship happening where we’re losing a previous generation. 
Being able to share these beyond the denominational groups is really 
valuable, and encouraging people to read the Yearbook, and keeping 
the minutes in the Yearbook available to people. Creating finding aids 
and bibliographies of denominational records and their locations 
is a great idea, and perhaps sharing resources. Another thing that’s 
going on at our library, for example, is that we are the institutional 
repository for PCUSA for the south of the country, and as such we have 
a lot of microfilm records of church minutes and histories and that 
sort of thing, and we found that a number of our records this year 
are experiencing vinegar syndrome, and we are going to lose some 
of those. Now, we’ve been really lucky that we have duplicates of 
those affected records, but we’re the only library that has them, and 
yikes! That’s a lot of really important information. It would be really 



Conversation Groups    139

cool if there was a way that we could share those resources in some 
ways. Maybe microfilm is hard to share, but if there are ways that 
we could do that—which leads me to another idea that I had, which 
is possibly digitizing denominational records in some way, either at 
the library level, or making donations that contribute to allowing a 
larger library (such as UPSem or the Presbyterian Historical Society) 
to do that kind of digitization because online hosting space is mad 
expensive. But being able to make those denominational resources 
accessible to others in an online format would be really great. 

Karl Stutzman
As one of the younger denominational groups, one of the roles that 
we might play is kind of modeling the idea that groups can expand, 
inform, and grow anew. We don’t necessarily have to have kind of a 
fixity of “these are the Christian subsets that meet together.” There 
could be other religious affiliations, new kinds of birds of a feather. 
Just to kind of go back into the history a little bit to show what hap-
pened, it was over table fellowship that Eileen, my predecessor, 
discovered that there were a number of other birds of a feather of 
Anabaptist/Mennonites hanging around at Atla, working at other 
denominations’ libraries, but they wanted to hang out together 
and get that fellowship of the group that they felt that affinity with. 
So that’s why the Anabaptist-Mennonite group always met at a dif-
ferent time: it was for practical reasons. But there’s also a kind of 
religious backdrop to that, which is that we have at least in some 
wings of the Anabaptist Mennonite movement, a real enacting of 
the whole meal as indicative of what the disciples did with Jesus. 
That table fellowship kind of theme continued, and when I joined 
the Anabaptist/Mennonite group in 2009, it was always a lunch at a 
different time from when all the other denominational groups met. 
There’s flexibility and free form enough in Atla to allow for what we 
on the Board (I’m a member of the Board of Directors) articulated in 
our organizational ends, as expressing life stances. This is a broader 
term that indicates not just particularity of religious beliefs but all 
these stances that make up who we are. I think the Anabaptist life 
stance maybe provides a model that Atla can use for the future 
going forward.



140    ATL A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

Patrick Milas
Thanks so much, Karl. I like how you characterize your denomina-
tional group as essentially an affinity group as well, and you think 
about affinity, and other types of affinity groups. 

QUESTION 8. HOW MIGHT ATLA BETTER SUPPORT EXISTING 
DENOMINATIONAL GROUPS? 

David Kriegh
Thank you, Patrick. I have thoughts. One thing, as we saw from 
Patrick’s history of denominational groups, is that consistency is 
always a good thing and yet we seem to be always changing and 
some of it’s because some denominations that weren’t represented 
came into existence in Atla and that structure had to correct that. I 
think that we had seen some things lately: the Yearbook, even though 
it kind of ripped out the denominational stuff out of the Summary of 
Proceedings (which has its own issues), also imposed standards we’ve 
never seen before on those—and I kind of like having guidelines to 
work from. When I get the minutes from Kathy [Harty], who’s the 
minute taker for life and the minute dictator for life of the group, 
there’s some consistency to that, and also we’re creating a record 
as well. Atla made some good steps, and making that consistent, 
so that we can look through the history of these things and more 
clearly see that, and it’ll be less archaeological than some of the 
experiences Patrick was discovering through years and years of the 
Summary of Proceedings. I would suggest that we look more at the 
conveners and the way conveners came about. My personal story is 
that it happened here in Long Beach eight years ago when Stephen 
Sweeney was elected to the Board of Directors. He said it was going 
to be hard for him to keep being the convener of the Catholic group 
(although I don’t believe there’s any bylaw saying you can’t do both) 
so I volunteered to take over. It was super informal, there were no 
elections, disputes, or anything like that; it just kind of happened, 
and it’s never changed since, and I’m still in this role. I might suggest 
that Atla look, though, at the arrangements and how the groups are 
selecting their conveners. Notice, too, when someone steps into being 
convener, that they’re demonstrating some leadership and seeing 
succession planning in Atla; notice that action, what’s happening 
there. There’s a lot of energy coming out of denominational groups. As 



Conversation Groups    141

we see in the history of Atla, sometimes trying to impose a top-down 
order on the denominations wasn’t working out so much so they 
threw the whole thing out at one point. But now we’re seeing more 
of a bottom-up approach, things coming out of the denominational 
groups. So really look at that, see how they’re functioning, and see 
what best practices can be brought across the groups. Even though 
I’m not advocating that we all become the same, far from it, there 
are some consistent best practices that we can all learn from each 
other and follow, and that’s really in the interest of the association.

QUESTION 9. HOW DOES THE TRADITION OF ATLA DENOMINATIONAL 
GROUPS ENGAGE WITH FAITHS BEYOND THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION, 
IF AT ALL?

Karl Stutzman
I alluded to this a little bit earlier. And really, the denominational 
groups introduced into Atla a spirit of interfaith understanding. 
Through planning these worship sessions through this engagement, 
across denominational groups, this kind of experience of worship—
I’ve heard this from other folks in Atla as well—of learning and 
engagement and curiosity for each other, and our different expres-
sions of faith, is a unique feature of Atla that is rooted in the history 
of these denominational groups that we learn today. As we continue 
to engage in interfaith understanding, this is a model that we already 
have developed for that engagement. I hope that we can continue to 
engage respectfully on the basis of our shared work as theological 
religious librarians. And I really think that the kinds of rituals that 
we develop at Atla, rooted in this past that we have of denomina-
tional groups, serves us well for our future in an increasingly more 
interfaith Americas, since that’s where we’re kind of based, but also 
around the world that we’re engaging more and more locally. We’re 
just going to have to keep getting more diverse. And that’s a good 
thing. But we have this DNA, that is a great launch pad.



142    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

QUESTION 10. WHAT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOUR 
GROUP? 

Alison Poage
I’d like to share that it is a small group, and so far in my experience, 
it’s been small participation. If anyone out there is curious about it 
or craving that kind of connection where you get to talk a little bit 
more in a smaller group, I would really recommend coming to the 
denominational meeting. The conversations that we’ve had today, 
listening about how some people are working in a denomination 
that’s different from their own, makes me wonder if we could get 
more people coming and sharing different perspectives. The other 
thing I would like to share is just how meaningful it’s been to hear 
about the generations. In the chat we were just hearing about 
someone who’s done the work before. I learned from Mitzi about 
Newland Smith, an Episcopal seminary librarian. I had not known 
that name, but it was someone who was active in Atla and someone 
who was a mentor to Mitzi. I looked into who the person is, and now 
am familiar with another Episcopal librarian who’s contributed to 
the field, even though we’ve never met. That’s really neat; and in 
light of what Robin was saying about the importance of memori-
als, I think it’s really nice to know of each other and know of each 
other’s work, and to be able to carry on that legacy. And now that 
you shared, Patrick, that the first convener of the Episcopal denomi-
national group was Thomas Edward Camp, of course, now I have a 
curiosity about Thomas Edward Camp. I value that about our group 
and the opportunity it can be for us to get to know each other and 
be mindful of each other’s work.

Patrick Milas
I can add that, in the pandemic and the isolation of the pandemic, 
one of the things that the Anglican and Episcopal denominational 
group did was, instead of merely hosting worship at the Annual 
Conference, we also met midyear. During Advent we met online 
for prayer services as a way to continue to connect throughout the 
year, even though we weren’t able to go to an in-person conference 
at all in 2020. 



Conversation Groups    143

QUESTION 11. HOW DOES THE ABILITY TO GATHER AROUND 
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY ENHANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE OF ATLA?

Karl Stutzman
This is a really fantastic question for us to work on together. Actually, 
that dual identity that we hold as theological and librarians—we’re 
Atla, lowercase now. But I think we still carry with us that identity 
as theological librarians largely: that’s the name of our journal 
[Theological Librarianship]. I really believe that the two facets of that 
vocational identity are important to honor at the same time, they 
make sense together, in this context. I can go to a general church 
conference and that’s not the same as this. I can go to a general 
library conference, and that’s not the same as this. But there’s some-
thing about this kind of shared passion that we have, as different 
as we all are from each other, that makes for a very special place 
of connection. And I experience coming to Atla, where we have 
our strongly held religious identities and vocations, along with our 
strongly held librarianship values, as a homecoming. John talked 
about it as a kind of family reunion, right? It’s a tribe. That isn’t just 
that we came from the same ancestor. We welcome new people into 
the tribe all the time. But it makes it a very special place where I do 
feel I found my people. That’s the value of it for me.

Alison Poage
I would add to Karl’s comment that I find it to be kind of a—I think 
he used the word family—I’ll say stabilizing, comforting piece of our 
organization that’s experienced a great deal of change. Those two 
things can be both in an organization: you could change and grow 
and become more diverse, and then you could have these traditional 
groups that share—our birds of a feather. And even as we’re finding 
new birds of a feather, we have these traditional ones that we’ve 
heard about today and have been around since the 19…—I forget 
exactly what year it was—but it’s been a little while. I find denomi-
national groups to be beneficial to our organization in this time.

Patrick Milas
Thank you, Alison. I’d like to open it up to our audience now as well. 
Would any of you like to address the question of how does the ability 



14 4    ATL A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

to gather around religious identity enhance your experience of the 
Atla conference or the experiences of people you know? 

We had the comment from Carisse Berryhill, talking about the 
Campbell-Stone denominational group, and she shared that “Really 
it may be better to think of it as a tradition, such that our related 
libraries really collect from throughout the movement and support 
each other.” Thank you. 

QUESTION 12. WHAT HAVE YOU MOST APPRECIATED ABOUT EVENTS 
OR WORSHIP PLANNED BY OTHER DENOMINATIONAL GROUPS? 

Patrick Milas
We have a comment from Michelle Spomer, regarding the Presbyterian 
and Reformed denominational group and their recent digitization 
efforts and interest in greater collaboration. 

Virginia Dearborn
Hello, everyone! It’s been a minute since I was Atla in-person, but a 
very early memory from my first Atla was just getting the opportu-
nity to participate in the Atla Choir. I remember that when I heard 
that there was a choir I was like, “Wait a minute, talk about finding 
your people! We get to do librarianship and theology and choir?!” 
It also gave me an opportunity to participate in a worshipful way, 
which is very important to me, with singing, but in traditions and 
with music that are not from my own tradition, which is just really 
special.

Patrick Milas
Thank you. And we have a comment from Kate Wimer, about 
opportunities for participating in other denominational groups, 
“work events and worship have helped to bridge the gap between 
the many denominations that are represented in our seminaries 
and serve them better.”



Conversation Groups    145

Carisse Berryhill
Local host committees have been instrumental in planning our 
worship services, drawing upon local resources to sponsor worship, 
and the local host committees, as well as denominational groups, 
who contribute to that worship, and historically, sometimes in a big 
plenary setting and elsewhere, and the smaller settings.

Patrick Milas
We have a comment from an online attendee, thoughtfully remem-
bering Melody McMahon and her work with the Roman Catholic 
denominational group’s resources. Thank you.

Karl Stutzman
I have one memory of being involved in worship planning for Atla 
and that was in Indianapolis, right before the pandemic, and this 
was the beginning of worship happening in a little room off to 
the side. It was really meaningful, and we did that partly because 
of our faith identity, but partly because we were local-ish. (We’re 
in Northern Indiana at my school, about three hours away from 
Indianapolis—but local-ish, just as some of the local hosts here 
are local-ish.) That was a really meaningful experience to come 
together, and we planned a hymn singing, which is something we 
do as Mennonites, and something that connected really well with 
our Atla colleagues, who also love to sing. That was a nice bridge 
point that we were able to build as both local and denominational 
in that involvement. There is something to be said, too, for a more 
intimate setting for worship. It’s the faithful who really turn up at 7 
a.m. in a small room off to the side at the conference, and you have 
a sense of that passion there. 

Patrick Milas
Thank you, Karl—the faithful, perhaps the curious, perhaps the 
sleep-deprived.

Christina Torbert
There’s really something unique about even having worship offer-
ings at the Atla conference. 



146    ATL A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

Patrick Milas
We have a comment from an online participant, in loving memory 
of Seth Kasten for his wonderful leadership of the Atla choir. 

Michelle Spomer
The different worship services are really educational opportunities 
for folks from other associations, groups and traditions. 

Patrick Milas
We’re also interested to know about interfaith understanding, but we 
don’t have time to address our final question, “does your denomina-
tional group currently build interfaith understanding? If so, how?” 

Thank you for the kind remarks from our online participants; and 
thank you all for contributing to this panel and audience conversa-
tion. We’ll look forward to continuing the conversation. 

Thank you.

Special thanks go to Shraeyah Rajeshwaran, Library Assistant, Gardner 
A. Sage Library, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, for transcrib-
ing the panelists’ question and answer portion of the program. Some 
responses have been shortened or edited for clarity.

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