Evangelical Covenant Church

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The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) is an evangelical Christian denomination of more than 750 congregations in the United States and Canada with ministries on five continents of the world. Founded in 1885 by Swedish immigrants, the church is now one of the most rapidly growing and multi-ethnic denominations in North America. Historically Lutheran in theology and background they are now a broadly evangelical movement.

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[edit] Faith and Practice

The ECC believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God and "the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct." They also affirm the historic creeds of the church, especially the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed, while maintaining that the Bible is sovereign over all creedal interpretations. Even though the church is non-confessional it often references six main affirmations:

1) the centrality of the word of God

2) the necessity of the new birth

3) the church as a fellowship of believers

4) a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit

5) a commitment to the whole mission of the church

6) the reality of freedom in Christ

The church practices both infant baptism and believers baptism (by any method) and observes Holy Communion (monthly in most congregations). Both men and women can be ordained into the church's ordered ministry. According to the official pamphlet "Covenant Distinctives," the church is "evangelical, but not exclusive; biblical, but not doctrinaire; congregational, but not independent; traditional, but not rigid."

Recent annual meeting resolutions have demonstrated that the ECC supports creation care, the divestment of Sudan, the care for the poor and oppressed, traditional heterosexual marriage, and the sanctity of all life from conception to death. The ECC has been described as "non-dogmatic - open to differences of opinion while remaining orthodox."

[edit] Background

Swedish Lutheran immigrants founded the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America (now ECC) on February 20, 1885 in Chicago, Illinois. - - A pietistic religious awakening swept through Sweden around the middle of the 19th century. Out of this awakening and reformation came the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in 1878. The state church discouraged the gathering of these believers. It was people from this movement that emigrated to America and formed the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America. Early leaders and influences included (P.P. Waldenström 1838-1917, Frans-Gustav Petersson-Haggquist, 1843-1936; Axel E. Karlson, 1858-1910; David Nyvall, 1863-1946; et al.). They desired to create a voluntary covenant of churches that were committed to sharing the Gospel of Jesus, as well as provide means for ministerial training. The name was changed to the Evangelical Covenant Church of America in 1954 and the "of America" was eventually abandoned because the denomination includes a Canadian conference.

[edit] Status

The Denomination's headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, where they also operate North Park University, North Park Theological Seminary and Swedish Covenant Hospital. There are related Bible colleges in Alaska and California. (See Alaska Christian College, and Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos).

The church also operates Minnehaha Academy, a private K-12 school with three campuses in Minneapolis.

The church is divided into ten regional conferences - Canada Conference, Central Conference, East Coast Conference (org. 1890), Great Lakes Conference, Midsouth Conference, Midwest Conference, North Pacific Conference, Northwest Conference, Pacific Southwest Conference, and Southeast Conference - and one administrative region - Alaska. The highest authority is an annual meeting of delegates sent by the local congregations. Covenant Publications is the publishing arm of the denomination. The denominational hymnal is The Covenant Hymnal: A Worship Book. A major church ministry is not-for-profit senior housing, the ECC being one of the top ten suppliers of such housing in the United States.

As of 2006, membership was 115,811 in 735 congregations in the United States (42 states) and an estimated 1500 members in 22 congregations in Canada (5 provinces). Average attendance in 2005 was 160,915. The denomination also has ongoing missions work in 23 countries worldwide, with 105 career and project missionaries, 29 short-term missionaries. The ECC has a worldwide membership of almost 278,000.

[edit] Other

Historically Swedish and Lutheran in background, the Evangelical Covenant Church is now a rapidly growing multi-ethnic broadly-evangelical denomination.

Forerunners of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant were the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ansgar Synod and the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Synod. When members of the two synods dissolved and the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant was formed, some of those who did not enter the Mission Covenant formed the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission (now the Evangelical Free Church of America). The Evangelical Covenant Church maintains ties with the Swedish Mission Church (formerly known as the Svenska Missions-förbundet; see Svenska Missionskyrkan and CIPE), and the other churches in the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches.

In the 1920s, Warner Sallman created illustrations for the denominational magazine, Covenant Companion, including his charcoal sketch The Son of Man for a 1924 magazine cover that was later redone as the famous oil painting The Head of Christ.

Many figures in the Jesus Movement[citation needed] and the Emerging Church have formally linked themselves to the ECC.

[edit] Notable Members of the Evangelical Covenant Church

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Covenant Affirmations (2005, 24 page denominational summary, .pdf)
  • Covenant Roots, Glenn P. Anderson, editor
  • David Nyvall and the Shape of an Immigrant Church, by Scott E. Erickson
  • Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor
  • Handbook of Denominations in the United States, by Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood
  • Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States (2000), Glenmary Research Center
  • 2004 Annual Meeting Update: Delegate Summary Report
  • 2005 Annual Meeting Update: Delegate Summary Report
  • 2006 Annual Meeting Update: Delegate Summary Report
  • Covenant Yearbook: Statistical Data & Resources for Churches 2005-2006
  • Covenant Distinctives, Everett L. Wilson and Donald Lindman, authors
  • Morgan, David (Summer 2006). "The face that's everywhere". Christian History & Biography (91): 11. Christianity Today International. 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Covenant_Church"
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