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Paxton (IL) Church to Celebrate 125th Anniversary
PAXTON, IL (April 14, 2003) - The Evangelical Covenant Church of Paxton will mark
its 125th anniversary with events June 21-22.
Jim Hawkinson, retired executive director of the former Covenant
Publications department and former pastor at the church, will be a special
guest during confirmation reunion day on Sunday, June 22. He will preach
the morning worship service, which will be followed by a luncheon. The
weekend's events begin with a 7 p.m. concert Saturday.
On November 8, the congregation will host an anniversary banquet - details
will be announced at a later date.
The Paxton congregation started as the result of evangelistic meetings led
by Eric August Skogsberg that caused a division among members of an
Augustana Lutheran congregation in town. A group of people left the
Augustana congregation and in November 1878 organized the Swedish
Evangelical Lutheran Mission Church of Paxton under pastor P.A. Palmquist.
The congregation's first business meeting was held December 18, 1878. The
church agreed to construct its first building in February 1879 as the
congregation grew to 45 members. It was finished by the end of the year.
After joining the Evangelical Covenant Church in 1885, the church continued
to grow and had more than 500 involved in church by 1896, according to
congregational records. The church invested in a new building in 1921-22 to
accommodate that growth.
Known for many years as Mission Covenant Church, the Evangelical Covenant
Church of Paxton has had pastors and lay persons move on to help the
denomination in a variety of ways. Besides Hawkinson, pastors who served
the church included Harry Swanson, who later served as superintendent of
the Great Lakes Conference, and Elmer Fondell, a
former missionary who became professor of missions at North Park
Theological Seminary in Chicago. Longtime missionaries in South America,
Dean and Donna Erickson, also were sent from the congregation.
For more information about upcoming anniversary events, call the church
at 217-379-3554 or email evcov@net66.com.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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