Covenant News

Turlock Covenant Celebrates 100 Years of Ministry

TURLOCK, CA (November 14, 2002) - Turlock Covenant Church will begin 100th anniversary celebration events December 14-15, including a special historical pageant by Margaret Grant and Sunday worship services led by Rev. Jim Hawkinson.

The mid-December event coincides with the official founding of the church on December 18, 1902, according to records of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

On December 14, the church's Covenant Women Ministries group will host its traditional Lucia breakfast, celebrating the Scandinavian story of the Santa Lucia. On December 15, Hawkinson, a native of Turlock and executive director emeritus of the Department of Communication, will preach at morning worship and contribute to an evening service.

The evening's pageant, "Ruts in the Sand," was created by Margaret Grant, who traveled with her late husband, Willard, throughout North America performing a marionette evangelism ministry for decades.

Turlock Covenant had its first worship service the Sunday after Christmas (December 28) in 1902, according to a 1968 California Covenanter article. Then called Svenska Evangelical Missions Forsamlingen (Swedish Evangelical Mission Church), the church formally joined the denomination in 1903 under interim pastor Andrew Hallner. The church built its first church building in 1906 and secured its first full-time pastor, E.M. Carlson, in 1908.

In 1926 the church, now known as Beulah Covenant Church, constructed Beulah Temple in the Beulah Park area of Turlock. The new building was located at the site of the town's previous high school. It was dedicated December 2, 1928. Walfred Westlind (1934-44) and C. Victor Nyquist (1945-53) were two of the key pastors during the church's first 50 years of existence. Later, a church radio ministry that began in 1949 produced more than 1,000 broadcasts on a local station over a span of two decades. Jeff Woods is the current pastor to a congregation that has an average worship attendance of more than 200.

Turlock Covenant will host other centennial events next spring, including a special weekend March 28-30. John Notehelfer, former superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference and the current interim executive minister of the Department of World Mission, will preach at the Sunday morning worship service. A son of the church, William Notehelfer, will speak and sing at a Saturday night banquet and will lead a Sunday evening service of music. The church will also celebrate a Homecoming series of events in the spring (May 23-26) and fall of 2003, although details haven't been finalized.

For more information on the 100th anniversary events being planned at Turlock Covenant, call Robert Atkins, chaplain at the Covenant Village of Turlock, at 209-632-9976, extension 126. Atkins can be contacted by email at RLAtkins@covenantretirement.org. To learn more about the church and its ministries, call Woods at 209-667-1191.

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