Last week, the Covenant family gathered at the Grand Hyatt Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, for the 141st Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Focused on the theme “One Another,” delegates worshiped together, read Scripture, and remembered that none of us was ever meant to do ministry alone. The event also marked the historic milestone of fifty years since the Covenant voted to ordain women as pastors. President Tammy Swanson-Draheim reflected in The Covenant Companion, “The church is at its best when we make space—when we notice who is missing, who is new, who may be waiting.” That conviction reverberated through every session, vote, and official act throughout the weekend. Leaning into the value the Covenant holds on celebrating women in ministry, women preached at every worship service and led devotions each morning.
Thursday
Rev. Tamara Fore Ravelo, president of the Indigenous Ministers Association and senior pastor of Orchard Covenant Church in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, began Thursday evening’s worship service (viewable here) by naming the traditional homelands of the Indigenous peoples on whose land delegates were gathered. “Tonight, we practice the oldest thing the church knows how to do,” she said. “We gather, we break bread, we belong to each other. This is the work of one another.”
The evening’s preacher was Rev. Dani Kilgore, lead pastor of Church Without Walls in Berkeley, California, and president of the African American Ministers Association. Preaching from Romans 12:9–10 and Psalm 139:12, 23–24 on the theme “Lord, Is It Me?” Kilgore challenged those gathered to stop scanning the room for who else needed to change and to let the Spirit begin that searching work within themselves. Halfway through her sermon, the power went out in the hotel — and Kilgore preached on without a microphone. Barbara Ettinger later reflected, “The miracle of the Covenant isn’t that we agree on everything. The miracle is that Jesus keeps making family out of people who wouldn’t naturally choose each other.”
The evening concluded with communion as the musicians led the body in singing an acapella version of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
Friday
The 141st Annual Meeting was called to order. Moderator Catherine Barsotti opened proceedings, with Clarence Chan, vice moderator; Mary Peterson, secretary; and Michael Ravelo, parliamentarian; supporting the business of the meeting. A welcome was extended by Bryan Murphy, superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference.
The morning devotions were led by two Covenanters who share decades of friendship and partnership in ministry. Rev. Evelyn Johnson and Rev. Debbie Blue have been on an intentional cross-racial journey together for thirty-three years. Working from Hebrews 10:24–25 (“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds”), they shared stories of how they have learned from each other and grown together. Blue gave the assembly a challenge drawn from a quote she found on a t-shirt in the Bruce Lee Museum, attributed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “Make a friend that doesn’t look like you. You might change the world.”
Among the day’s first items of business was the reelection of Tammy Swanson-Draheim as president of the Evangelical Covenant Church for a second term. “Serving as the president of the Evangelical Covenant Church has been one of the greatest privileges of my life, and I don’t take your confidence lightly,” she said after the vote.
Herb Frost was reelected as executive minister of Serve Clergy, and Grace Shim was reelected as executive minister of Serve Globally, both for second terms.
Delegates welcomed six new churches into membership in the denomination.
Swanson-Draheim opened her president’s report by honoring the late Dr. Paul Larsen, seventh president of the denomination, who died this spring at 92.
She then turned to the anniversary the Covenant was marking this year, addressing recent increased restrictions on women in ministry in another denomination. Swanson-Draheim said, “We ordain women because we believe our position is deeply rooted in Scripture and reflects God’s intention for women and men to serve together in the life and leadership of his church.” She noted that 50 percent of ordinands this year are women. She also announced a new resource paper commissioned by the Executive Board titled “Living into the Kingdom of God: A Response to Christian Nationalism.” A six-person writing team will begin working on that resource, which will be brought to a future Annual Meeting for discussion before a vote. She closed by pointing to Unite 2027, the One Covenant Community initiative, and a new Servant Leadership initiative, with a word that framed them all: “Renewal is not something we can manufacture. It’s the work of God from beginning to end.”
You can watch her address in its entirety here.
Friday afternoon, the Irving C. Lambert Outstanding Urban Ministries Award was presented to Dr. Russell Jeung, a professor, activist, and longtime lay leader of New Hope Covenant Church in Oakland, California. The citation honored his tireless advocacy for immigrants as “embodying a gospel witness that integrates justice and mercy.” (Watch the presentation here.) In his remarks, Jeung reflected on what the Covenant means to him, saying, “During this period, where it’s really an age of terror for our immigrant communities, I’m really grateful for the Evangelical Covenant as it acts as a real sanctuary for those who need hope and light.”
Forty-seven ministers were honored with Clergy Vocational Service Recognition (viewable here). The Board of Ordered Ministry presented forty-one individuals to be ordained to word and sacrament, eight to word and three to finalize their transfer of ordination.
Later that afternoon, the T.W. Anderson Outstanding Layperson Award was presented to Christine Cikanek of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Princeton, Illinois. Unable to travel, Cikanek joined online as her pastor Rev. Jessica Boggs, received the award on her behalf. President Swanson-Draheim—whose own mother received the T.W. Anderson Award in the early 1990s—highlighted Cikanek’s decades of service as preschool teacher, care and visitation team, and GriefShare ministry. “I praise God for the opportunities that I have to serve him,” said Cikanek. “All glory is his.”
The afternoon also included a Called and Gifted panel, moderated by Dr. Hauna Ondrey, academic dean and associate professor of church history at North Park Theological Seminary. Ondrey mentioned that the same assembly in 1976 that approved the ordination of women voted against a second motion to create a denomination-wide program of education and placement for clergy women. Rev. Dr. Devyn Chambers Johnson shared a striking data point: in 2017, just under 6 percent of Covenant churches had a woman in a lead or co-pastor role. By 2026, that number reached 18 percent, tripling in nine years. “That is amazing,” she said. “But we still have further to go.”
Friday afternoon delegates commissioned five new church planters, elected new members to boards, and recognized departing members of the Executive Board.
Friday evening worship was led by Rev. Sandi Lee, born to Korean immigrants who came to the United States as second-generation church planters. Preaching from Ezekiel 37—the valley of the dry bones—she connected the devastation of Ezekiel’s context to the weariness of the present moment. She pressed on the central question God poses to Ezekiel: Can these bones live? “God is in the business of resurrecting a whole people,” she said, “the whole household of God, in all their fullness of strength, power, valor, and courage.” She closed by teaching the congregation a practice from Korean prayer tradition, crying out “Joo-yeo,” the Korean word for “Lord,” as an act of desperate, whole-body dependence. The assembly prayed together in call-and-response, voices rising across the room.
Saturday
Saturday morning’s devotions were led by Rev. Alma Zamudio, a Latina pastor, leader, and spiritual director. She preached from Mark 10:51, quoting Jesus’s question to blind Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?” She also mentioned the late Rev. Ed Delgado, longtime president of CHET (Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos), as a formative voice in her own journey. Early in her discernment process, she told him she felt unworthy of ministry. His response changed something in her when he said, “Alma, nobody is worthy. We serve only because of the grace of God. God’s grace makes us all worthy.”
She talked about her son with special needs, saying that he is a witness to the assembly’s fullness and challenging the denomination to practice “holy curiosity.” Zamudio closed with a direct word on immigration. “If you think immigration is an issue that does not affect you, then brothers and sisters, I invite you to look at me. Immigration has my face,” she said. “It has the faces of many brothers and sisters who worship beside you, who serve beside you, and who belong to the same body of Christ.”
Saturday morning continued with the financial report from Cyndi Hoffman, vice president of finance, which included both the FY2025 financial performance report, followed by the FY2027 mission and ministry budget. There was also recognition of service for outgoing global personnel, including nine people representing more than 150 years of combined service in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
Gather 2026 concluded with the Commissioning, Ordination, and Consecration Service. Rev. Dr. Carol Shimmin Nordstrom delivered the sermon. She and Rev. Sharon Hughes Tramper were the first two women ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church in 1978.
Shimmin Nordstrom preached from Jeremiah 17:9-17 and 1 Timothy 4:6-16 on the theme drawn from Jeremiah’s words: “I have not run away from being a shepherd of your people.” Sixty-five years ago to the day—June 27, 1961—she accepted Christ at Trailblazer Girls Camp in Madawa, Minnesota, and told her mother afterward that someday she would be the speaker at that camp. Her mother gently explained that preachers were only men. Two decades later, she stood at that same camp as its speaker.
Shimmin Nordstrom gave ordinands three exhortations. First, tell your story of call because you never know who God is working with. Second, remember that shepherds serve for life, not only in the traditional sense, but in every form ministry takes. And trust that God provides what is needed when we show up.
The delegate summary is available here →
The 142nd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church will be held June 24–26 in Birmingham, Alabama.
