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Rules of the Ordered Ministry Approved in Closing Session
Covenant News Service
KEYSTONE, CO (June 28, 2002) - Delegates approved adoption of the revised Rules
of the Ordered Ministry Friday afternoon as the 117th Annual Meeting in
Keystone drew to a close.
A total of 606 credentialed delegates from 260 churches were represented. A
total of 840 total registrants attended Friday's sessions.
The Rules of the Ordered Ministry were presented to delegates following
approval by the annual meeting of the Covenant Ministerium Tuesday.
Ordination and Commissioning categories are being expanded, among other
things. The new Rules will take effect in one year.
The Rules were presented at this spring's conference and regional annual
ministerium meetings with a total of 29 editorial changes incorporated as
a result of that effort. More information on the revised Rules of the
Ordered Ministry and amendments to the document from the Annual Meeting can
be found by visiting the special Annual Meeting link on the home page of
the Covenant web site at www.covchurch.org.
In other news:
- David Dahlberg, outgoing superintendent of the Great Lakes Conference,
was recognized for his 20 years of service in that administrative position.
President Glenn R. Palmberg praised Dahlberg for his commitment to
excellence and his care for pastors. Dahlberg was the guest preacher at
Friday's morning memorial service, which remembered the 22 pastors, five
missionaries and nine spouses of pastors who died during the past year.
- Paul Wilson was honored for eight years of service as field director of
the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska. He recently accepted a call to
First Covenant Church in Oakland, California, as senior pastor and will
begin in August. Palmberg noted ECCAK's commitment to the training of
children, teens and young adults under Wilson's leadership, which is most
recently represented through Covenant Youth of Alaska and the newly built
Alaska Christian College in Soldotna.
- Jorge and Noris Maldonado received the J. Irving Lambert Award for
longtime service in urban and ethnic ministries. More about the Maldonados
can be found in a separate article in the special Annual Meeting segment of
the web site.
- Three outgoing Executive Board members - Roy Applequist of Community
Covenant Church in Shawnee, Kansas; Karen Hearl of Trinity Covenant Church
in Manchester, Connecticut, and Ruth Johnson of Salem, Oregon, were
recognized by Palmberg.
- Outgoing ECC Annual Meeting moderator Harold "Hal" Larson of Faith
Covenant Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan, was recognized for his two
years of service to the denomination in that role.
- Dean Anderson of Community Covenant Church in Shawnee, Kansas, was
recognized for his longtime work for Covenant Development Corporation
(CDC). Anderson has served 26 years in various board positions for CDC,
which assists local churches in acquiring church sites.
- Delegates approved the extension of a Commission on Covenant History
for five years. Herbert Hedstrom, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church
of Elgin, Illinois, is chair of the commission.
- Gary Walter, executive minister of the Department of Church Growth and
Evangelism, introduced delegates to a video that promotes the Evangelical
Covenant Church and its various ministries. The video documents the
Covenant's rich history and notes its key affirmations and denominational
values.
- Jim Sundholm, executive director of Covenant World Relief, gave a "good
news" report to delegates, stating that projects in Ethiopia and Congo will
receive help in the near future. Water pipes are being sent to Gambella,
Ethiopia, to help a local hospital's water supply production and a new
sawmill is being sent to Goma, Congo, to help them build homes following a
recent volcanic eruption.
- Annual Meeting coordinator Eric Palmquist announced that the 118th
Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church is scheduled for June
26-28 at the Holiday Inn O'Hare International in Rosemont, Illinois.
Palmberg, who was re-elected for a second four-year term Wednesday,
presented a report earlier in the morning. In it, he expressed his
appreciation for the process that guided the discussion of difficult issues
that were addressed at this year's Annual Meeting.
Referring to the concerns surrounding the World Mission budget and the
resignation of Jim Gustafson, Palmberg said, "This is a denomination that
came to this Annual Meeting with anxiety and anger . . . and we worked
together to resolve these issues. It didn't point its finger at leaders and
say, 'Fix this...' They said, 'Let's work on this together.'
"Our strength (as a denomination) is not determining where the majority
wants to go and ignoring the others," he continued. "Our strength is in
uniting behind a common passion. Who, in their right mind, wouldn't want to
serve a church like this?"
Editor's note: Annual Meeting media coverage this week was produced by
Department of Communication staff members including Steven Luce, Joel
Pearson,
Craig Pinley, Jane Swanson-Nystrom and David Westerfield working at the
Keystone location. Don Meyer, executive minister of the Department of
Communication, was unable to be at Keystone due to family concerns, but
worked out of the Chicago offices with Heidi Griepp, Evy Lennard, Bob
Smietana, Carla Dyment and Jan Gray in editing and processing portions of
the coverage and handling other related production requirements.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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