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San Francisco's First Covenant Marks 125 Years of Ministry
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (October 24, 2002) - First Covenant Church in San Francisco
hosted a 125th anniversary weekend
October 18-20 with David Larsen, a previous pastor at the church, preaching
on Saturday and Sunday.
More than 400 attended the weekend activities, some coming from as far as
Florida and Pennsylvania, said
pastor Dennis Anderson. Other special guests included Pacific Southwest
Conference Supt. Evelyn M.R.
Johnson, as well as previous pastors Bryan Jeffrey Leech, Elmer Pearson and
Mike Ryan.
The church hosted a grand concert and reception last Friday to begin the
anniversary weekend. On Saturday,
Larsen spoke at the congregation's grand banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel
Union Square and then again at
the church's 11 a.m. Sunday morning worship service. The congregation
closed out the weekend with an
evening songfest as members and previous members shared their memories of
the church.
First Covenant is the oldest church in the Pacific Southwest Conference,
which celebrated its 100th
anniversary as a conference in 2002. It was one of six Covenant churches in
California to start what is now
the Pacific Southwest Conference. Representatives from San Francisco,
Oakland, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Jose
and Kingsburg met in Kingsburg in 1902 for the first conference meeting.
Allen and Marvel Johnson wrote a history of the church, reporting that the
church officially began in October of 1877 as the Swedish Tabernacle of San
Francisco. Rev. Carl Anderson became the first full-time pastor in 1886 and
helped start an extensive home group ministry. The San Francisco earthquake
of
1906 destroyed the "Swedish Tabernacle" and one year later the
congregation's members, with little resources, constructed their current
facility.
For more information about First Covenant, call pastor Anderson at
415-431-8755 or email him at sf1stcov@aol.com.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
