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Keep or Bin - The Care of your Parish Records

Keep or Bin? The Care of Your Parish Records is designed to help clergy and parish officers to understand which records need to be kept by the church, which should be sent to the local archive centre, and which can simply be disposed of as confidential waste.

The advice document, originally published in 1995, has been overhauled to include new guidance on the implementation of the Data Protection Act alongside other legislative changes, as well as to reflect the shift toward electronic storage of information.

The guide includes the answers to questions such as:

  • For how long do we need to keep bank statements?
  • Should we keep copies of our service sheets or weekly pew sheets?
  • How can we store paper documents to safeguard their preservation over time?
  • How should we go about backing up our computer system?

Keep or Bin? hopes to help parishes develop a consistent approach to the treatment of church records, with the benefit of advice from specialists in the field of archive management, including The National Archives, County Archives, and of course our own Church of England Record Centre.

By clicking on the resources link to the left you will be able to download your own copy. For those unable to download a copy, paper copies are available by post from the Church of England Record Centre, 15 Galleywall Road, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB.