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Richfield, MN Covenant Church Celebrates Centennial in May
RICHFIELD, MN (February 20, 2004) - Bethany Covenant Church will celebrate its
centennial May 1-2 with a Saturday open house followed by a banquet and
program, as well as a special Sunday morning worship service with
Northwest Conference Supterintendent James Fretheim preaching, said
David Kelly, senior pastor of Bethany Covenant.
The open house will be at the church at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 1. The
banquet will be held at nearby Crosstown Covenant Church in Minneapolis
at 5:30 p.m.
Bethany Covenant has already had smaller events to commemorate its
centennial. They included a September confirmation reunion that
attracted more than 200, a November 2 guest sermon by former pastor
Peter Hawkinson (now at Winnetka Covenant Church, Wilmette, Illinois), a
December 7 concert performed by Sarah Amend-Marshall and a February 8
worship service led by guest preacher Anne Vining-Pederson.
Vining-Pederson was baptized and confirmed at Bethany Covenant and is
now senior pastor of First Covenant Church in St. Paul.
On March 7, Paul Swanson, retired Minnehaha Academy professor and
ordained Covenant pastor, will preach at Sunday morning worship.
Swanson's father, Rev. O. Rudolph Swanson, grew up at Bethany.
Laurelle Pearson, a centennial committee member, is creating a
centennial anniversary memory book. Items for the book can be sent to
Pearson by email at laurellep@aol.com. A centennial cookbook is also
being sold for $10 and a yearbook is also being coordinated.
Bethany Covenant Church was organized in a south Minneapolis
neighborhood on April 29, 1904, when 73 people signed their names to a
formal charter document of the Swedish Evangelical Bethany congregation.
In 1883, however, a small group of Swedish immigrants had begun meeting
regularly for worship and a year later started a Sunday school that ran
for two decades before the formal organization of the congregation.
In January 1911, the church moved into a new building, then on March 24,
1957, held it's first service in the sanctuary of their current
building. The congregation's membership is 136, according to recent
Covenant Yearbook records.
The church's website will have updated information at
www.bethanycov.com. Questions, comments and information about past
members may be sent by email to: bethanycov@bethanycov.com. The church's
phone number is 612-869-2500.
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