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The United Church of Canada Alberta and
Northwest Conference Archives
Jane Bowe McCarthy, MAS ANW Conference Archivist
The Alberta and Northwest Conference Archives of today owes a debt of gratitude to the host of archivists and archives conveners of the Conference who have been the keepers of the records since 1925 when the United Church of Canada was created from the union of the Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian denominations. Record-keeping was an important function within the operation of each of our three predecessor denominations and, as a result, there is a wealth of early pre-Union archival records in our holdings.
The Conference Archives itself has existed in various ways since 1937, through the work of the archives conveners. As a physical space, the Conference Archives was more formalized ca. 1957-1959 by Rev. R.E. Finlay, Custodian of Records, who organized and centralized the Conference Archives at St. Stephen's College in Edmonton. Rev. Finlay was followed by Mrs. Florence Scofield from 1961 to 1974. Upon Mrs. Scofield's resignation, Ruth Schrag took over in 1974. In 1974, the Conference studied a proposal to lodge its Archives with the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) along with other main-line denominations. The Provincial Archivist at the time, Mr. Alan Ridge, took the lead in this regard and together with the Conference Executive Secretary at the time, Rev. Phil Cline, signed a permanent loan agreement in 1975. A number of Church volunteers were trained in an archives course taught by Mr. Ridge and then assisted Mrs. Schrag in the work of transferring the holdings and subsequently creating an inventory. In 1975, Mr. Ridge resigned as Provincial Archivist, due to ill health. In the United Church work, Mr. Ridge was replaced by another PAA staff member, Keith Stotyn. Keith served as Conference Archivist from 1975 to ca. 1996, as part of his duties as Chief Archivist, Manuscripts and Reference Services. Upon Keith's transfer to another area of the government service, the PAA approached the ANW Conference to see if they would fund the position again of Conference Archivist and that is how I came to be here in 1997.
The Conference's archival program has grown significantly since 1997, particularly in the areas of outreach and education. As a further stage in our development, ANW Conference Archives qualified for institutional membership in the Archives Society of Alberta in 2001. Currently we are in the process of contributing fonds-level descriptions to the Archives Network of Alberta and developing a website and online finding aids to serve the 21st century needs of both our internal and external users.
Our mandate is to acquire, preserve, and make available the records of the church courts of the Conference, nine presbyteries, and over three hundred active pastoral charges and congregations in a geographic region that includes Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and certain locations in Saskatchewan. Since 1997, we have focused our work on raising the profile of the Conference Archives within our faith community, on increasing education and outreach through records management and archives workshops and congregational site visits, and on dealing with certain issues such as closures, amalgamations, non-lottery sourced funding, and most recently implementation of the federal and provincial private sector privacy legislation.
The Conference Archivist is accountable to the Conference through the Executive Secretary and the Heritage Resources Standing Committee. The Executive Secretary is responsible for the record keeping function within the Conference and the Heritage Resources Standing Committee has oversight of the archives, artifacts, historic sites and heritage societies that exist in the Conference.
This Conference Archives is part of The United Church of Canada Archives Network that consists of the Central Archives in Toronto, and seven regional Conference Archives across Canada. Most, if not all, are one-person shops that employ a Conference Archivist and benefit from volunteers who assist in various areas of archival work. While each Conference in The United Church of Canada is responsible for the delivery of its own archival program and, hence, each may operate in slightly different ways each Conference Archives abides by common guidelines for record keeping and according to the terms of reference outlined in The Manual of The United Church of Canada.
One may consult our institutional profile on the ASA website for a description of our holdings and details of our day-to-day operation.
Further details on The United Church of Canada Archival Network and the online tools such as Guidelines for Record Keeping in The United Church of Canada and Managing Your Congregation's Records may be found on the national website at: www.united-church.ca/archives
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