|
Home
East Coast Delegates Receive Pilgrim Pines Update
WOODSTOCK, CT (May 1, 2002) - Superintendent Robert C. Dvorak was re-elected for
another term and Judy Swanberg was installed as associate superintendent
during the East Coast Conference annual meeting at the Evangelical Covenant
Church in Woodstock, Connecticut, April 26-27.
Events surrounding Pilgrim Pines Conference Center and its legal battles
were among agenda
items considered by delegates. Four years of property taxes (1996-1999)
totaling about $369,000 were paid to the Town of Swanzey by the conference
on behalf of Pilgrim Pines. Court decisions regarding property taxes for
2000 and 2001 are still pending.
Swanberg presented a proposal for the Churches Planting Ministries
initiative in the East Coast Conference. The conference executive board
will decide whether to proceed on the proposal in July. Five other
conferences have already decided to launch the Churches Planting Ministries
program.
Elected to the executive board are Chairperson Richard Anderson of
Plainville, Connecticut, and Vice Chairperson Linda Williams of Keene, New
Hampshire. Newly elected district trustees include Gigi Zepp of Worcester,
Massachusetts; James Tengwall of Montclair, New Jersey; Lynda Seguin of
Springfield, Virginia; Karen Pearson of Portland, Maine; and Dale Kuehne of
Nashua, New Hampshire.
Three fellowship groups are in various stages of development. They include
Redeemer Covenant Church, Fairhaven, Massachusetts; Lighthouse Covenant
Church, Old Saybrook, Connecticut; and Field's Corner Neighborhood Church,
Dorchester, Massachusetts. The conference is considering a church plant in
the Boston Harbor area with cooperation from the New England Seafarer's
Mission, the East Coast Conference, Covenant Ministries of Benevolence and
the denomination's Department of Church Growth and Evangelism. A six-month
exploratory agreement has been reached to study the matter.
Growth at the conference level was nearly three percent, according to
Dvorak's. He also noted that Pilgrim Covenant Church in Brooklyn, New York,
was officially closed last May.
A number of unique ministries are developing in East Coast Conference
churches, including a 4,000-square-foot teen center called The Lion's Den
at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. Run by
youth pastor Gregory Dyson, the Lion's Den combines a coffee house, game
room and teen center. He hopes that the teen center can service nearly a
dozen churches in and around Springfield, Massachusetts.
John Weborg, professor of theology at North Park Theological Seminary in
Chicago, was the guest speaker at the East Coast Conference ministerium
last Thursday. Doreen Olson, executive minister of the Department of
Christian Formation, led a discussion of the revised rules of the Ordered
Ministry. Peter Nielsen, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church of
Northport, New York, was elected ministerium chair. On Friday, a group of
pastors participated in a workshop for the new worship planning software
Covenant WorshipStudio that is being distributed to churches
throughout the denomination.
For more information about the East Coast Conference and its annual
meeting, call 860-635-2691 or email ecceast@aol.com.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
|
|
|
