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Salina (KS) Church Continues 125th Celebration
SALINA, KS (April 8, 2003) - First Covenant Church continued its yearlong 125th
anniversary celebration April 3-6 as Donn Engebretson, executive vice
president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, preached at morning worship
services.
Midwest Conference Supt. Kenneth P. Carlson was an honored guest at a
Wednesday night prayer service. Jim Hawkinson, executive director emeritus
of the former Publications Department of the Evangelical Covenant Church,
spoke at a banquet last Saturday night attended by approximately 400
individuals.
Members of the 125th anniversary committee guided a tour of the
construction site for new facilities on Saturday afternoon. Member-guides
included pastor Dan Pietrzyk,
Margaret Logan, Bev Romans, Anne Ross, Joanne Stucky, Larry Hays and
Gary Rowson. A Sunday luncheon for honored guests and the church's
previous pastors ended the weekend celebration.
First Covenant Church was organized April 10, 1878, as the Swedish
Evangelical Mission Lutheran Church with 26 individuals as part of the
original congregation. The first permanent building was erected the same
year. Church records credit John A. Nelson as founder of the church. The
church did not have a full-time pastor until 1894, although a layperson
named August Nelson often served in that capacity, according to church
records. Carl Peterson became the first pastor in 1894. In 1905, the church
joined the denomination as the Swedish Evangelical Mission Church.
The congregation has been a longtime supporter of world mission activities,
according to church records. Longtime Covenant missionary to Africa, Arden
Almquist, was sent from First Covenant to what is now Congo in 1951. He
became medical director of the Paul Carlson Foundation, the author of
several books and the recipient of the National Order of the Leopard, the
highest honor given by the Republic of Zaire to a foreigner.
First Covenant Church averaged 772 in worship attendance last year,
according to Covenant Yearbook records. The church is in the midst
of a $6.4 million building project - groundbreaking took place last June.
The church hopes to finish the project in early 2004.
For more information about First Covenant and its ministries, call Pietrzyk
at
785-823-8110 or visit the church web page at www.firstcovenantsalina.org.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
