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Maldonados Honored for CHET Service

PORTLAND, OR (June 24, 2007) – Although Jorge Maldonado is retiring as president of the Hispanic Center for Theological Studies (CHET), he already has plans to continue in ministry. He and his wife, Noris, will be Covenant short-term missionaries in Spain.

“There are some people who are too gifted for God to ever leave alone,” said Evangelical Covenant Church President Glenn Palmberg this morning as delegates to the 122nd Annual Meeting honored Maldonado. To view a video of the presentation, please select from the following options, depending on the speed of the Internet connection: high-band, or low-band.

An ordained Covenant pastor, Jorge Maldonado came to CHET in 1993 from Geneva, Switzerland, where he served for five years as the executive secretary for family education with the World Council of Churches.

He helped CHET grow from 50 students to more than 300 while assisting with the development of four satellite campuses. CHET is a theological studies and pastoral training center for Hispanic church planters, pastors, and lay leaders.  

Maldonado's roots in the Covenant stretch four decades. He served from 1966 to 1977 as the professor of psychology at T.W. Anderson College in Quito, Ecuador. From 1972 to 1977 he also was the director of the theological education department for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador.

Maldonado moved to the United States in 1978 when he began his pastorate at First Covenant Church in Los Angeles, California. After two years at First Covenant, he returned to Ecuador and served as the general secretary of the Latin American Association of Theological Education Institutions, based in Guayaquil and Quito.

He then became international coordinator of Quito-based EIRENE, the Latin American Association for Pastor Care and Counseling of the Family. While with EIRENE, Maldonado wrote and edited many articles for publications pertaining to family issues in Latin America.

A hymn writer and author, he helped craft Un Cantico Nuevo (A New Song), the hymnbook of the Evangelical Covenant Churches in Latin America. He also wrote a book, Even in the Best of Families, that has been translated into three languages.

Jorge earned his Bachelor of Theology degree from Biblical Seminary of Latin America, San Jose, Costa Rica. He studied at the Central University of Ecuador in Quito in its school of sociology before heading to United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, where he received a Master of Sacred Theology degree.

Before working with CHET, Jorge earned a Master of Theology with an emphasis in missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller.

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