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North Miami Church to Celebrate 75 Years of Ministry

NORTH MIAMI, FL (April 6, 2003) - Bethany Evangelical Covenant Church will celebrate its 75th year of ministry June 7-8, according to pastor Andy Anderson.

Southeast Conference Supt. Kurt Miericke will preach at the Sunday morning worship service on June 8. David Kersten, a previous pastor at the church who now serves as executive minister of the Department of the Ordered Ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church, will speak at an afternoon celebration service commemorating the congregation's history. A dinner will precede the afternoon service.

On June 7, the church and nearby Barry University will co-lead a housing fair in the area. The event will provide information on buying a home and related issues. The congregation will administer a home ownership survey as one way to assist the university and will provide food as part of a fundraiser and community outreach opportunity.

Bethany Evangelical Covenant Church began with meetings in the mid-1920s at the home of David Johnson, who operated a local dairy farm. The church officially organized March 19, 1928, with the help of pastor A.B. Ost and joined the Covenant a year later as the Swedish Evangelical Mission Church. It was incorporated in 1930. The first full-time pastor was Hilding B. Jacobson, who ministered from July 1928 to November 1929. Oscar Osterberg, who ministered in Miami from 1934 to 1940, led the church in its first building project (1936) and was instrumental in the growth of the congregation's Sunday school.

By 1950, the church was growing and received a large write-up in a local magazine for its ministry under pastor David E. Bergstrom. Along with its own ministry, the church helped Covenant Palms of Miami, a retirement community, as it opened and expanded greatly over a 10-year period in the 1950s. Bethany Covenant grew from 71 to 128 members during the two-year pastorate of Carl Peterson (1951-53). The congregation expanded its ministry and embarked on a five-year fundraising and building drive as it relocated to another part of Miami in the 1960s. It dedicated the new building on November 27, 1966, under the leadership of L. Daniel Anderson.

A group of people from Bethany Covenant helped in the development of Palmetto Community Covenant Church. The church also continued to be heavily involved in the work of Covenant Palms before Anderson retired in 1981.

Andy Anderson has been pastor of the church since 1987 and the congregation helped in the formation of a Haitian church, which eventually combined with Bethany when the congregation decided to make the church an international congregation. Average worship attendance is about 75 and many ethnic groups are represented, including those from many Caribbean countries. The congregation hopes to expand a church grade school (second through fifth grades) with financial assistance from National Covenant Properties, said Anderson.

For more information the church and its anniversary weekend, call the church staff at 440-442-5050.

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