Covenant News

East Bridgewater (MA) to Mark 125 Years in August

EAST BRIDGEWATER, MA (May 21, 2004) - Community Covenant Church is celebrating its 125th anniversary August 7-8 with a Saturday picnic and a special Sunday morning service and luncheon.

Pastor Don Olson says the church will host a picnic on August 7 with events beginning at 3:30 p.m. The church will have games for children similar to those played when the church was founded in 1879. Olson will preach at the 10 a.m. worship service on August 8 and a luncheon will follow. Former pastors have been invited to the weekend festivities and also to preach at various times during the year. The church also has organized an archive display to help tell the story of the congregation.

Community Covenant Church was spawned out of a "week of prayer" in Brockton, Massachusetts, which eventually lasted three months, records show. From this spiritual awakening came the Swedish Evangelical Independent Mission Church in nearby Campello, which was founded on August 5, 1879, at the home of August Dean and officially incorporated in 1881. Carl W. Holm was the first chair of the church, which originally held services in a building called Drake's Hall and then at a local Methodist church.

Professor J.C. Princell divided his time between New York and Massachusetts as the church's first pastor. The second pastor, A.G. Nelson, led three worship services each Sunday at three different locations in Massachusetts. A third, Nils Nilsson, was known for leading many to Christ through evangelistic meetings. Within 10 years of the founding of the church, the congregation (now called the Swedish Evangelical Congregational Church of Brockton) had increased to 130 members under pastor August Pohl. Otto Nelson was the longest tenured pastor during the congregation's initial four decades, serving seven years, and Pohl served at two different times for a total of six years.

Axel Bergstedt served the longest pastorate in Community Covenant's history. He took over as senior pastor on the eve of the church's 40th anniversary, September 1, 1919, and provided the church with stable leadership for the next 28 years as the congregation's worship services evolved from Swedish to English language and the church dealt with financial depression and World War II. After Bergstedt left the church in 1947, he served a number of years as a chaplain for the Scandinavian Seamen's Mission in Boston.

Community Covenant totals 155 in average worship attendance, according to the most recent Covenant Yearbook statistics. To learn more about the church and its anniversary event, call Olson at 508-583-3360 or visit the church website at www.CommunityCovenant.com.

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