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The Anglican Church Records - Challenges of the Unofficial Volunteer Archivist
Kathryn Ivany
The Anglican Archives for the Diocese of Edmonton and its 70 regional member parishes is housed at the Provincial Archives of Alberta and is overseen by the Synod office, although no individual is named archivist. In the neighbouring dioceses of Calgary and Athabasca volunteer archivists have been named who respond to research requests and help coordinate the transfer of records from the individual parishes to the archives.
In 2002 a Diocesan History Committee was struck to develop a program or product for the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese in 2003. At the same time, the Provincial Archives requested assistance with the process of updating an inventory and the re-housing of the Anglican records prior to their move into the new Provincial Archives building. Volunteers were recruited from Anglican parishes and included two members of the Diocesan History Committee. Training and supervision were provided by the PAA staff and an updated inventory is now available. During this effort the committee members obtained a better understanding of the operations and procedures of the Provincial Archives, the contents of the Anglican Archives housed there, and the gaps in our collection. Like other religious archives, the Anglican records are both complicated in their integration (individuals serve on several different bodies within the church and their records are often commingled) and in the incompleteness of their transfer to the originating authority (often the records of church organizations are considered personal rather than corporate).
The DHC hoped that once we had a better picture of the status quo of the Anglican collection we could start to plan a future direction for the anniversary celebrations. Instead we found a potentially larger and more complex task. We were able to ascertain that there has not been a consistent policy of collection from our constituent parishes and associated organizations. There are both chronological gaps and content deficiencies in the records. Some organizations such as the Women's Auxiliary have quite complete records while others, like the Bishop's Laymen's Fund for example, is represented by a few photographs and an occasional program from its annual dinner. A significant portion of the photographic material collected is unidentified - even as to the contributing parish - which reduces its historical value to researchers. Without the authority of a canonical directive to parishes to preserve and archive their administrative records there is little a volunteer organization such as the Diocesan History Committee can do to ensure proper records management throughout the diocese.
Even in instances where the DHC has managed to identify interested individuals in parish churches who want to help with the anniversary project, there still is the issue that they are not trained in either records management or archival procedures. If there is a parish archivist identified they are usually volunteers or part-time office staff. They have few resources and often little support for their efforts to encourage committee members and auxiliary organizations to keep and preserve their records. Often storage space and transportation costs limit their ability to process and send the materials to the synod office for deposit in the PAA.
For the most part the emphasis in the parish churches is for ministry. The churches rely on donations from their members and it is a difficult "sell" to place those hard won dollars towards records management or archival preservation if there are needs in the Sunday School or Parish Outreach programs that are not being met. Similarly at the diocesan level priorities and resources rarely flow easily into at archives program. Recently however, the value of historical records was brought to the forefront when the diocese discovered it was responsible for a cemetery of which the current staff was not previously aware. Since the associated church had been deconsecrated and physically removed from the site, the whereabouts of the records for the interments were not easily identified. Committee members had to use records from other organizations (in this case, the Genealogical Society of Alberta to determine if, and how many, graves still existed at the site.
The difficulty now, having identified that records are not being regularly turned over for deposit in the archives, is that there is no one in a position with the authority to request that churches and auxiliary organizations find their missing records and archive them. There is no one to liaise with the Provincial Archives of Alberta staff or to take responsibility for the maintenance of the inventory, the development of finding aids or to assist with research requests that come into the PAA for access to Anglican records. While we are grateful to the Provincial Archives for their preservation of the records, we might be accused of foisting our responsibilities onto them. Questions of who can access the records and how to protect privacy and the church's interests are not being dealt with on a corporate level but rather left to another organization to oversee and control. In regards to its historic records the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton has relinquished control by its neglect. In the absence of an agreement with the PAA, the volunteers interested in the Anglican archives are restricted as to when and where we can process our records, the systems and procedures under which the records are processed and how our volunteers are trained and supervised. We have no autonomy to deal with our own historical documents and control access to them.
In the past two years the Diocese of Edmonton has begun to address some of these concerns. Although spared from the controversies and drain on resources experienced in the rest of the national church through the litigation surrounding the residential schools issue, the diocese has been aware of the impact of legal issues and new legislation which will affect how and what records are made and preserved. The impending anniversaries of the diocese and many of its older constituent parishes are bringing the state of our churches' historic records to the forefront of our administration's attention. The efficient operation of many projects, from renovations to anniversaries may cause archives and historic records to rise in the priorities of our churches. As we have seen during the centennial celebrations of the city, and we expect to see during the provincial centennial next year, the public often views our records as important sources of genealogical data and community history and they are very interested in gaining access to them. The challenge to the Anglican church is how best to support those interested individuals who are committed to volunteering their time to ensure the survival of the Anglican Church Archives.
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