Kit Caffey has lived the history of the diocese
Reprinted with permission from
The Historiographer, Christmas 2007
By The Rev. S. Albert Kennington
Pensacola, Fl
It is not often the official diocesan historiographer has lived at close range, the entire history of the diocese, but such is the case in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. Kit Caffey is in her fifth year as canonical registrar-historiographer, and she brings to her work a lively and intimate association with the diocese from its inception.
In 1968, Alabama's bishop coadjutor, George Murray, suggested that a new diocese be formed from the southern third of Alabama and the "panhandle" of Florida. Kit's late husband, Judge Will G. Caffey, was not only a delegate to that convention, but also a friend of the bishop from their days at the University of Alabama. Kit watched and listened closely as her husband served on a diocesan planning committee to guide the formation of the new diocese and then as he served on the first standing committee when the diocese was formed in 1970.
In 1973, Kit attended the ECW Triennial during the General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1976, she was a deputy to her first General Convention. In the years since the diocese began, she has served as a deputy or active alternate deputy to eight General Conventions and a registered volunteer to two others, as a member of the Executive Council from Province IV, as diocesan convener of the Episcopal Church Women, and as a member for two terms of the diocesan standing committee, including one term as president. Her honors include the Diocesan Distinguished Service award. In her home parish of St. Paul's, Daphne, Alabama, her service includes vestry member, senior warden, lay eucharistic minister, and Sunday School teacher. In other words, Kit knows and lives the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Episcopal Church.
Kit has a life-long interest in history. She is a long-time active member of the Historic Mobile Preservation Society and the Baldwin County Historical Society. On the church scene, she is a member of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists (on whose board she has served), and the Episcopal Women's History Project.
For some years she has been a member of the Registrar-Historiographer's Team of the Central Gulf Cost. One of her main passions these days is organizing, with the aid of her colleagues on the team, the archives of the 37-year-old diocese. When Hurricane Ivan wreaked major damage on the diocesan office in Pensacola in 2004, she joined diocesan administrator Vince Currie, Jr., in planning a new room in the rebuilt structure that would be dedicated to archives.
With the help of her colleagues, Kit is creating a space that is safe for archival materials, replete with information about the diocese and its two parent dioceses, and accessible to researchers. To this work she adds a particular homey touch: For most meetings, this mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother brings lunch, usually prepared by her the evening before and packed for her hour's drive to the diocesan office. It is no surprise that her teammates show up!
Kit has lived through much, heard much, and seen much in this diocese. While she is taking good care of the records, she wisely chooses when to tell you the facts and when to tell you the whole story.
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