Covenant News

East Coast Delegates Receive Pilgrim Pines Update

WOODSTOCK, CT (May 1, 2002) - Superintendent Robert C. Dvorak was re-elected for another term and Judy Swanberg was installed as associate superintendent during the East Coast Conference annual meeting at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Woodstock, Connecticut, April 26-27.

Events surrounding Pilgrim Pines Conference Center and its legal battles were among agenda items considered by delegates. Four years of property taxes (1996-1999) totaling about $369,000 were paid to the Town of Swanzey by the conference on behalf of Pilgrim Pines. Court decisions regarding property taxes for 2000 and 2001 are still pending.

Swanberg presented a proposal for the Churches Planting Ministries initiative in the East Coast Conference. The conference executive board will decide whether to proceed on the proposal in July. Five other conferences have already decided to launch the Churches Planting Ministries program.

Elected to the executive board are Chairperson Richard Anderson of Plainville, Connecticut, and Vice Chairperson Linda Williams of Keene, New Hampshire. Newly elected district trustees include Gigi Zepp of Worcester, Massachusetts; James Tengwall of Montclair, New Jersey; Lynda Seguin of Springfield, Virginia; Karen Pearson of Portland, Maine; and Dale Kuehne of Nashua, New Hampshire.

Three fellowship groups are in various stages of development. They include Redeemer Covenant Church, Fairhaven, Massachusetts; Lighthouse Covenant Church, Old Saybrook, Connecticut; and Field's Corner Neighborhood Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts. The conference is considering a church plant in the Boston Harbor area with cooperation from the New England Seafarer's Mission, the East Coast Conference, Covenant Ministries of Benevolence and the denomination's Department of Church Growth and Evangelism. A six-month exploratory agreement has been reached to study the matter.

Growth at the conference level was nearly three percent, according to Dvorak's. He also noted that Pilgrim Covenant Church in Brooklyn, New York, was officially closed last May.

A number of unique ministries are developing in East Coast Conference churches, including a 4,000-square-foot teen center called The Lion's Den at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. Run by youth pastor Gregory Dyson, the Lion's Den combines a coffee house, game room and teen center. He hopes that the teen center can service nearly a dozen churches in and around Springfield, Massachusetts.

John Weborg, professor of theology at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, was the guest speaker at the East Coast Conference ministerium last Thursday. Doreen Olson, executive minister of the Department of Christian Formation, led a discussion of the revised rules of the Ordered Ministry. Peter Nielsen, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Northport, New York, was elected ministerium chair. On Friday, a group of pastors participated in a workshop for the new worship planning software Covenant WorshipStudio that is being distributed to churches throughout the denomination.

For more information about the East Coast Conference and its annual meeting, call 860-635-2691 or email ecceast@aol.com.

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