Covenant News

Salina (KS) Church Continues 125th Celebration

SALINA, KS (April 8, 2003) - First Covenant Church continued its yearlong 125th anniversary celebration April 3-6 as Donn Engebretson, executive vice president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, preached at morning worship services.

Midwest Conference Supt. Kenneth P. Carlson was an honored guest at a Wednesday night prayer service. Jim Hawkinson, executive director emeritus of the former Publications Department of the Evangelical Covenant Church, spoke at a banquet last Saturday night attended by approximately 400 individuals.

Members of the 125th anniversary committee guided a tour of the construction site for new facilities on Saturday afternoon. Member-guides included pastor Dan Pietrzyk, Margaret Logan, Bev Romans, Anne Ross, Joanne Stucky, Larry Hays and Gary Rowson. A Sunday luncheon for honored guests and the church's previous pastors ended the weekend celebration.

First Covenant Church was organized April 10, 1878, as the Swedish Evangelical Mission Lutheran Church with 26 individuals as part of the original congregation. The first permanent building was erected the same year. Church records credit John A. Nelson as founder of the church. The church did not have a full-time pastor until 1894, although a layperson named August Nelson often served in that capacity, according to church records. Carl Peterson became the first pastor in 1894. In 1905, the church joined the denomination as the Swedish Evangelical Mission Church.

The congregation has been a longtime supporter of world mission activities, according to church records. Longtime Covenant missionary to Africa, Arden Almquist, was sent from First Covenant to what is now Congo in 1951. He became medical director of the Paul Carlson Foundation, the author of several books and the recipient of the National Order of the Leopard, the highest honor given by the Republic of Zaire to a foreigner.

First Covenant Church averaged 772 in worship attendance last year, according to Covenant Yearbook records. The church is in the midst of a $6.4 million building project - groundbreaking took place last June. The church hopes to finish the project in early 2004.

For more information about First Covenant and its ministries, call Pietrzyk at 785-823-8110 or visit the church web page at www.firstcovenantsalina.org.

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