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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. As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ...
The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...
The term evangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion - good news) of the New Testament. ...
Background
Swedish Lutheran immigrants founded the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America (now ECC) on February 20, 1885 in Chicago, Illinois. February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...
Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden) Official website: http://egov. ...
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 and often persecuted 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. Pietism was a movement, in the Lutheran Church, lasting from the late-17th century to the mid-18th Century. ...
Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
P. P. Waldenström Paul Petter Waldenström (20 July 1838 – 14 July 1917) was a Swedish theologian who became the most prominent leader of the free church movement in late 19th century Sweden. ...
David Nyvall (Jan. ...
This article is about Jesus of Nazareth; for other uses, see Jesus (disambiguation). ...
1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
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: the centrality of the word of God, the necessity of the new birth, the church as a fellowship of believers, a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit, a commitment to the whole mission of the church, and 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." Icon depicting the Holy Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea holding the Nicene Creed. ...
The Apostles Creed (in Latin, Symbolum Apostolorum), is an early statement of Christian belief, possibly from the first or second century, but more likely post-Nicene Creed in the early 4th Century AD. The theological specifics of the creed appear to be a refutation of Gnosticism, an early heresy. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Believers baptism (also called credobaptism) is the Christian ritual of baptism as given only to adults and children who have made a declaration of faith in Jesus as their personal savior, because he died for their sins, and was resurrected by the power of God the Father. ...
The Eucharist is either the Christian sacrament of consecrated bread and wine or the ritual surrounding it. ...
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet (that is, without a hard cover or binding). ...
The term evangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion - good news) of the New Testament. ...
Recent annual meeting resolutions have demonstrated that the ECC opposes abortion (with a life of the mother exception, but as of 2004 no longer excepting cases of rape and incest), affirms marriage as between a man and a woman, and opposes assisted suicide. The ECC has been described as "non-dogmatic - open to differences of opinion while remaining orthodox."
Status The Denomination's headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, where they also operate North Park University and North Park Theological Seminary. There are related Bible colleges in Alberta, Colorado, Ecuador, Alaska, and California. (See Covenant Bible College, Alaska Christian College, and Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos). North Park University is a university located at 3225 W. Foster Avenue on the north side of Chicago, Illinois in the North Park neighborhood. ...
North Park Theological Seminary is a seminary located in Chicago, Illinois. ...
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 2005, membership was 114,110 in 735 congregations in the United States (42 states) and an estimated 1500 members in 22 congregations in Canada (5 provinces). Average attendance in 2006 was 160,811. 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 260,000. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
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-forbündet; see Svenska Missionskyrkan and CIPE), and the other churches in the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches. The Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) is an association of autonomous evangelical Christian congregations. ...
Many figures in the Jesus Movement and the Emerging Church have formally linked themselves to the ECC. The Christian component of the Hippie Movement, composed of the Jesus People or Jesus Freaks arose spontaneously on the American West Coast in the 1960s and 1970s and spread throughout North America and Europe. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Notable Members of the Evangelical Covenant Church Seattle Seahawks Coach Mike Holmgren, ABC News Medical Editor Dr. G. Timothy Johnson, Il. State Senator Peter Roskam and actor Tom Hanks attended the Marin Covenant Church as a youth.
External links
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
- Covenant Yearbook: Statistical Data & Resources for Churches 2005-2006
- Covenant Distinctives, Everett L. Wilson and Donald Lindman, authors
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