The Administrative series covers the period 1957-2002 and is the largest portion of the record group. In addition to the church's quarterly conference minutes, this series also documents its activities within the Michigan Conference and within the General or national conference. Under "Financial" are formal, detailed, annual and quarterly reports containing information about nearly all of the church's expenditures and receipts. It should be noted that financial information about the status of various church projects can be found scattered throughout this series. Under "Pastors," the researcher will find information about pastors Hilliard and Ardrey. Although most of these files relate to the activities of Pastor Ardrey, files of Bishop Hilliard have been separately donated to the library and may be found cataloged under his name. The Ardrey files reflect his concern for his community and his desire to improve the educational system. Materials from many of the committees that he worked on - including the Property Release Option program, Citizens for Millage, and the Task Force on School/Community Relations - are found in this portion of the Administrative series.
St. Paul A.M.E. Zion Church was also involved in a housing project, 1966-1978, and records from this undertaking are found under the heading "St. Paul Housing Corporation." Designed to be an affordable housing alternative for the elderly and low income families, this project was financed by a federal government loan. Unfortunately, the project never materialized as anticipated because the loan came due before construction was completed.
The Administration series also includes materials on some of the organizations within the church, such as its clubs, the board of stewards and the board of trustees. The researcher will get a sense of the church's membership by examining the funeral notices, many of which contain brief summaries of the lives of deceased members. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by name of member. There are also funeral notices scattered among the most recent Sunday Bulletins.
