PLANTATION, FL (March 8, 2017) – Retired Covenant minister Göte Bringerud died Friday, March 3. He was 95.
He was born February 24, 1922, in Varnamo, Småland, Sweden. He earned the equivalent of an MDiv while studying at the Swedish Mission Covenant Theological Seminary, Kennedy School of Mission at Hartford (Connecticut) Seminary.
He was ordained in the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (SMF) in 1949 and transferred his ordination to the Evangelical Covenant Church in 1971.
Commissioned as a missionary to Japan with the SMF, he served in Okayama-ken.
He married Carol Johnson, a missionary with the ECC, at the Army Chapel Center in Tokyo, Japan, on July 11, 1953. In 1964 they moved to Tokyo, where Göte taught at the Covenant Seminary and together they served as the high-school boys dorm parents at Christian Academy in Japan.
The family settled in Lexington, Massachusetts, where Göte was chaplain of the Boston Seamen’s Mission and then with International Students, Inc. In 1971 Göte was called to serve at the Mission Covenant Church in Orange, Massachusetts. After Orange they served together at Covenant churches in Lafayette, Indiana, and Lockport, Illinois. He retired in 1989 but then served in Venice, Florida.
Göte was an official chaplain to the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, in 1980, and an unofficial chaplain to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, in 1964.
Carol preceded Göte in death. He is survived by four children, Lisa (Daniel) Westberg of Växjö, Sweden, and Nashotah, Wisconsin; Tina (Randy) Olson of Jamestown, New York; Kurt (Marina) of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and Bruce (Anneli) of Söråker, Sweden; 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren
There will be a graveside memorial service on Friday, March 31, at All Faiths Cemetery in Worcester, Massachusetts.
