Covenant News

Date of Memorial Service Changed for Retired Pastor Ahlstedt

SPRING VALLEY, CA (February 21, 2002) - A memorial service will be at 2:30 p.m. on March 11 for retired Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) pastor Jerome M. Ahlstedt, who died recently at Mt. Miguel Covenant Village in Spring Valley. The service originally was scheduled for March 16.

The memorial service will be conducted at the Bailey Center at Mt. Miguel Covenant Village where he and his wife resided.

The 84-year old Ahlstedt had retired for health reasons in 1975 after pastoring for 31 years in nine different churches throughout the United States.

Born August 27, 1917, in Salina, Kansas, Ahlstedt grew up in Mission Covenant Church in Salina and graduated from North Park Junior College (1940) and North Park Theological Seminary (1944) in Chicago. He was ordained as a Covenant pastor in 1948 and served his first full-time pastorate at First Covenant Church in Bessemer, Pennsylvania, from 1946 to 1951.

Ahlstedt served five years each at Fairfield Evangelical Covenant Church in Haxtun, Colorado, and Salem Covenant Church in Duluth, Minnesota. He then served three years as pastor for North Haven Evangelical Covenant Church in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He was senior pastor at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Oberlin, Kansas, and First Covenant Church of Peoria, Illinois, before returning to Haxtun and retiring from ministry.

Besides doing church pastoral work, Ahlstedt served as Secretary of the Covenant Ministerium and on boards for the North Pacific, Midwest and Northwest conferences. He also was on management committees for Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) organizations in Duluth and Cuyahoga Falls and served in a variety of hospital chaplain positions.

Ahlstedt is survived by his wife, Elaine, and his son, John.

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