Covenant News

Funeral Service Saturday for Doris R. Johnson

SPRING VALLEY, CA (October 25, 2004) - A funeral service will be conducted Saturday for Doris R. Johnson, former executive secretary of Covenant Women of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) and wife of the late pastor Arnold Johnson.

The service will begin at 2:30 p.m. in Bailey Center at Mount Miguel Covenant Village, according to Chaplain Carl Ramgren.

Johnson, who was 80 years of age at the time of her death, served Covenant Women (now known as Women Ministries of the ECC) from 1980 to 1989 after serving from 1967 to 1980 as a longtime social worker for the University of Chicago Hospital as assistant professor of medical social work. She was the first individual to be elected by the Annual Meeting to the Covenant Women role, said Women Ministries of the ECC Executive Minister Ruth Hill. She was a key advocate for women in ministry during the years after the ECC began to ordain women (approved during the 1976 Annual Meeting). She also helped lay a foundation for a denomination-supported ministry to the developmentally disabled.

Through her work with Covenant Women, Johnson helped lay the groundwork for Covenant Enabling Residences (CER), which are now administered by Covenant Ministries of Benevolence. The first CER facility – Bjorklund House of Oak Forest, Illinois - opened in 1994. But a decade earlier, Johnson was advocating for ministries to serve a variety of disabilities. She said a key element in the start of a CER facility was a questionnaire given to pastors at an Annual Meeting event in 1986.

"The questionnaire asked Covenant pastors whether they had people with emotional or mental disabilities in their churches," Johnson recalled during an August interview with Covenant Communications. "We were overwhelmed at the response we got from the questionnaires - and the number of needs. We also realized that there were very few Christian organizations that were there to fill this need."

Shortly after compiling the questionnaire data, Johnson formed a Special Human Needs Commission that was comprised of representatives from Covenant Women, the Covenant's Board of Benevolence and the Department of Christian Education and Discipleship (now Christian Formation). There were also various members-at-large, including parents of some disabled children.

Johnson said that the initial goal of the commission was to research Covenant networks and individuals to serve the needs of those with special needs. Robert Baptista was appointed part-time director of the 1988 "Enabling the Disabled Project," which, according to Covenant Yearbook records was charged "to work towards the goal of establishing a model of homes for disabled persons under the auspices of the ECC."

Johnson had served with Covenant Women eight years after marrying her husband, Arnold, whose first wife had died in 1969. He was a Covenant pastor serving at South Chicago Covenant Church and had previously started two Covenant churches - in Virginia and Tennessee - and had also started Covenant Mountain Mission. Arnold resigned from his church shortly before Doris took the Covenant Women role and officially retired in 1985. He died July 6, 1991, in Brooksville, Florida, where they were living at the time.

Following her husband's death, Doris moved to southern California and served in ministry at College Center Covenant Church in San Diego for a time while living at nearby Mt. Miguel Covenant Village. She suffered a stroke last week and had been hospitalized in nearby La Mesa, according to Jan Monsen, associate pastor at College Center Covenant.

Born in China to missionary parents, Johnson earned her undergraduate degree from George Williams College in Illinois and had a Master of Arts in education and counseling from the University of Chicago and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois.

Preceded in death by her husband, Johnson is survived by her stepchildren: Betty Tomlinson, Ruth Coburn and Arnold Johnson Jr., and their families. It is suggested that memorial gifts be designated to College Center Covenant Church.

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