Please find below the letter the AAO has sent regarding the United Church Archives.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

29 May 2007

Nora Sanders 
General Secretary, General Council 
The United Church of Canada 
3250 Bloor Street West, Suite 300 
Toronto, Ontario, 
Canada M8X 2Y4 


Dear Ms. Sanders: 

I am writing to you on behalf of the Archives Association of Ontario (AAO), representing Ontario's archival community, to express our concerns over the future of the Central Archives of the United Church of Canada. This letter is further to our correspondence sent to your predecessor, Dr. Sinclair, in August 2006.

The recent decision by the General Council of the United Church of Canada to dissolve the agreement with Victoria University and to move the Church's Central Archives to an as-yet unknown location fills our Association with some concern. As I know you are aware, the proper management of archival holdings is vital for the continued successful operations of the United Church, as well as constituting an essential tool for understanding the Church's past actions. 

We are reassured by the announcement that the archives will continue to exist and that access to their holdings will be maintained. I realize that your personal knowledge of the issues inherent in the accessibility to proper documentation, regarding such issues as Residential Schools, must be reflected in this decision to continue to provide this access. 

Nonetheless, I want to remind you of something we previously wrote to Dr. Sinclair. Early in the last century, Sir Arthur Doughty, Canada's Dominion Archivist, wrote that "Of all national assets archives are the most precious; they are the gift of one generation to another and the extent of our care of them marks the extent of our civilization." This has come to be one of the most widely-quoted declarations of the importance of archives. We want to ensure that this gift to future generations continues to exist in a viable, accessible form. 

On behalf of the Archives Association of Ontario, I ask that the General Council Executive of the United Church of Canada work toward ensuring the long-term management, preservation, and accessibility of its documentary heritage. Anything less would be an abandonment of the United Church of Canada's responsibility to preserve and to protect its collective memory. 


Yours truly, 



Liz Mayville 
President 
Archives Association of Ontario