Preserving, engaging, and expanding the Covenant story
Summer/fall 2015
Covenant History F r ien d s of
In This Issue... CONTENTS In This Issue.................. 1 Clothed by the Spirit by Curtis Ivanof............. 2 Native Missionaries in Rural Alaska by Eva Malvich.............. 7 From the Archives: The Historical Photograph Collection: Alaska in Pictures by Anna-Kajsa Anderson....................... 8 Throwback: Alaska in Minutes (1889, 1972)...........................10
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n March 27, 2015, delegates meeting in Elim, Alaska, voted to transition the Covenant churches of Alaska from “field” to “conference,” becoming the eleventh conference of the ECC. We offer this issue in commemoration of this historic decision. Our Throwback column includes portions of the Annual Meeting minutes of 1889 and 1972, documenting the transfer of the Alaska mission from the Covenant of Sweden to the American Covenant (1889), and Alaska’s transfer from “foreign mission” to “home mission” (1972). The historical significance of Alaska’s now becoming a conference is obvious. For the sake of preservation, we publish here a transcription of the sermon preached by Curtis Ivanoff, formerly field director, now superintendent of the Alaska conference, the day prior to the historic vote. In his sermon, Ivanoff locates this significant event within the long history of Swedish, Swedish American, and Native mission in Alaska. Complementing Ivanoff ’s account, Eva Malvich, director and curator of the Yupiit Piciryarait Museum in Bethel, Alaska, offers a series of brief biographical sketches, highlighting Native lay pastors in the early years of the Covenant in Alaska. As a denomination we are truly blessed that those before us stewarded our historical sources through the preservation of records, letters, photographs, and other documents. Our current archivist Anna-Kajsa Anderson continues to increase the accessibility of these materials through the development of digital collections, funded in large part by the Donald Frisk Memorial Fund.
Letter from E.J. Eckman to C.A. Björk regarding the transfer of the Alaska mission (November 19, 1889)
Anderson’s From the Archives column highlights the Historical Photograph Collection, which makes accessible 7,000 photographs and counting. The collection includes a wide range of subjects, going back to 1885. Congruent to our issue theme, Anderson offers a sampling of photographs from the Covenant’s work in Alaska. As Friends of Covenant History, we celebrate the ways God has worked in Alaska and the many faithful people through whom he has worked. We mark this important moment and pray God’s continued blessing on the Alaska Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. ■ 1
Clothed with the Spirit Message given by Curtis Ivanoff, then Field Director for the Alaska Field – March 26, 2015, Elim, Alaska
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f you go to the graveyard in Unalakleet, you’ll see a tall grave marker. It stands above all the others. It marks the grave of the first missionary who came to our state, to our area, who was associated with the Mission Friends. He was Swedish. His name was Axel Karlson. He represented a people from across the globe. One of our Covenant historians tells us that Axel Karlson and Adolph Lydell who went to Yakutat were children of a revival in Sweden that broke out in the mid-1800s. During the time of this revival—the church was shaken, shaken—and to some extent disordered. By what? By the movement of God’s Spirit—shaken and disordered. These two missionaries were the fruit of that revival. Lost sheep were found. Revival broke out in Sweden, and that revival trickled its way over to the United States of America and to this land, Alaska, to Unalakleet. About ten paces south of Karlson’s grave marker is another grave marker. It’s much smaller. It is, you might say, less distinguished by physical appearance, but it’s a marker that says, “First native missionary, Wilson Gonangnan.” Wilson Gonangnan, I would say, was touched by that revival. He was touched by the movement of God’s Spirit. And it happened right here. And tonight I’m going to tell a little more about that story as we look at God’s word. Would you pray with me? God we invite you now. We’ve been here for a few hours, but, Lord, we’re on village time. So help us to relax and tune our minds and our hearts to your living word and to your Holy Spirit. We invite you now to be our teacher. So make us alive to your voice and your word. Touch us. Transform us. For I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power,” pay attention here, “that power, is like the working of his mighty strength which
At that conference in Elim in 1919, hearts were stirred
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he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead” [Ephesians 1:18–20a]. Did you hear that? “His incomparably great power.” It’s like the power that he poured out when Christ rose from the dead. I don’t know what happened in the tomb. I don’t know if all of a sudden Jesus coughed and started breathing again and started taking off the grave clothes. I don’t know. But there was a pouring out of a great power, and death was defeated in the tomb that day! And we can know this power. It’s Paul’s prayer, “which he exerted in Christ when he raised Curtis Ivanoff him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the age to come” [Ephesians 1:20–21]. There is not a power greater that we can know, that we can have, than that of the power God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. The president of the United States can barely touch that kind of power. There’s no emperor, there’s no king, there’s no mayor, there’s no president of any village IRA or tribal government that has the power that God has given to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And friends, if we would open our hearts and receive from him, we can know that incomparably great power. Let’s go to Luke, chapter 24, the scripture that was read. I was working at Alaska Christian College as a campus pastor, and I befriended a Russian Orthodox father in the Kenai area. He’s from Marshall. I would
invite him to come to our church history class and worship, to teach about Eastern Orthodox worship and practice and theology, to learn about how God’s church has moved through the Orthodox Church in the East. He shared his “story” at Alaska Christian College, which they do every few days on campus. And you know, Orthodox priests—well, they look different. They wear black robes. They have a hat. They have the cross. Their appearance sets them apart. And I’ve always thought—huh, interesting. You see them in the airport, and I don’t know about you, but I always take notice: there’s something different about their garb. So one of the students said, “So what’s your job?” And Father Thomas looked at that student, paused—a good native pause, a Yup’ik pause—looked at them as if to say, “Don’t you know?” Do you know what his answer was? “I wait on the Lord.” I wait on the Lord. We were like, what? Don’t you do more than that? Wait on the Lord? Well, in Luke 24 Jesus says to his followers, “He opened their minds.” It says in the first verse that we had read, “He opened their minds so they could understand” [Luke 24:45]. So right off the bat we see understanding being given, minds being opened to understand the scriptures. But he says, “the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day….You are witnesses of these things” [Luke 24:46, 48]. And listen to what he says there in [verse] 49, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed
with power from on high” [Luke 24:49]. What did he tell them to do? Wait. Wait. And you’re going to be clothed with power from on high. So here’s what I want to tell us tonight: I’ve been talking about how we’re going to commemorate—Lord willing; I don’t want to be presumptuous about tomorrow’s vote—but we’re going to commemorate becoming a conference, and there’s a constitution and bylaws to pass. But here’s what I believe with all my heart. That’s a small big step. It’s a small big step. But what will be bigger for us? What will be the big big step is that we become more alive. And how are we going to do that? We need to change our clothes. We need to change our clothes every day and be clothed with power from on high. Jesus was telling his followers, you’re going to be given the Holy Spirit, and in that Spirit there is power. They had no clue what was going to happen. They had no clue what this power that was going to be poured out into their lives was going to do to them. And I don’t know if we have a clue, really. I don’t know if we have a clue, that we can plumb the depths and greatness of God’s power. And that’s why we’re encouraged by Paul. He prayed for the followers in Ephesus. He prayed for us that we might understand, that we would be opened, that we would be clothed. So ECCAK, Covenant churches of Alaska, Covenant ministries of Alaska, I exhort you to change your clothes. To be clothed with power from on high, because that is what is going to lead us into our new
Group at Elim conference (N.D.)
Continued ➤
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Golovin Covenant Church (1913)
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I am talking about the Spirit of God that turns stony hearts into hearts of flesh, like we heard today in giving testimony. The Spirit of God that causes us to come to life. That’s the blessing of God. Not money, not stuff. Those things rust. Those thing are decoys, friends. God has called us to pursue the things of his kingdom. And he gives us blessing and favor. I don’t know about you, but in life, in ministry, in the rigors of just day-to-day things, you can feel beaten down. You know what I mean? You can feel beleaguered when your coworker shoots you chapter unlike anything else. We can pass a constituthat look. You can feel beleaguered when someone tion and bylaws—and I’m not diminishing that one cusses you out. You can feel beleaguered when you bit. That’s going to be a big thing; it’s a significant have a relationship that’s stressed and strained, and thing. But what I’m saying is, what’s more significant is that you and I and us, we change our clothes and get maybe it’s your child or grandchild or brother or sister. There’s things that beleaguer us, friends. But God is clothed with power from on high. It says that, “When a God who has demonstrated and given us blessing. he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he Why? I think this echoes the lifted up his hands and he words given to Abraham, “I’ll blessed them”—he blessed God’s Spirit moved in you.” Why? So you can be them. “While he was blessing the hearts of the people bless a blessing to all the nations, all them, he left them and was of Elim…and their the peoples of the world. taken up into heaven” [Luke Friends, the Eskimos here 24:50–51]. Do you get the response was to go in this region have received that picture here? He’s leaving the plant a church in 1919 blessing that has come through earth, and what’s his last act in Mountain Village. Jesus Christ. We’ve been blessed as he’s leaving the earth after with his favor. We have been he gives instruction to wait in the city until you’re clothed with power? What’s his last blessed with his loving-kindness. We have been blessed with his forgiveness. And he wants us to extend that act? Blessing. Blessing. to others. Those clothes, they’re clothes of blessing; See, the clothes that God gives us, they’re clothes they’re clothes of power. I opened up a Christmas presthat have power, and they’re clothes marked by blessent this Christmas, and it was one of those presents ing. When Jesus was baptized, what were the words where it was just like, “Wow.” It was a fur hat from my that were heard? “This is my son whom I love, with mom. I didn’t even bring it with me to Elim because I him I am well pleased” [Matthew 3:17]. Do you hear the life-giving words in that? This is my son, my child; don’t want to lose it, you know? It’s special. And why is he belongs to me. You are a child; you belong to some- it special? It’s a gift from my mom. It’s a gift from my mom that clothes my head. I’ve used it on cold days one. Maybe your parents have gone on—my father this winter. It’s sea otter and seal skin…woowee! And has gone on. You’re a child. Some of you are parents I was blessed by that gift. But it wasn’t because it was and could maybe understand and get a glimpse of the this nice fur hat. I was blessed because my mom, my significance of what it is to love a child. And tonight, mom gave me something special. And I will always what I want to say is, we’re children. We’re children of treasure that hat. So much so that I wouldn’t bring the one true king, and we’re children of the one true it to Elim. And that was just a fur hat. You have an king who gave his people blessing and favor. And I’m not talking about new snow machines and new trucks, opportunity to bless your children, your grandchildren, nice TVs or new phones. I’m not talking about money. your neighbor, your enemy, this community, this state.
Wherever you’re at, you’ve got opportunity every day to give blessing. I was talking to Joel [Oyoumick] earlier about what blessing means: causing one’s spirit to be sweet. Making one’s spirit sweet. Hasn’t your spirit been made sweet tonight, by the worship, by the children’s singing? Wasn’t that a blessing? It made my heart sweet. Jesus, as he left the earth, made the hearts of his followers sweet. He blessed them, and “while he was blessing them he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God” [Luke 24:51–53]. Power and blessing. In 1913, just down the coast here in the fall, there was a vicious storm. It’s recounted here in this book Grandpa that Rodney [Sawyer] had translated and bound, and we have re-published again—Grandpa: A Mission in Alaska [by Jan-Olov Schroder, translated by Sigurd F. Westburg]. It is recounted in this book about that storm in Golovin. It said that thousands were displaced. Hundreds of lives were lost. It said there were dead bodies on the beach. It was a grim scene. There was a children’s home there that was run by the Covenant Church. L.E. Ost was the missionary who was serving there. And when that storm hit, there was a need. And they determined there was a need to relocate. And those of you who are from here, from this region, you know where they relocated. L.E. Ost and other natives like Aniguiin and locals, they scouted out a place to come to. And you know where they came? Right here. And they gave the name of this place “Elim,” from the Bible, in 1913. Six years later in 1919 in the summer, there were only two missionaries serving here in Alaska. The Covenant Church had been going through challenge. There was a gold rush scandal; it was messy. Finances were challenging. But those missionaries said, “You know what? Let’s have a conference.” And you know where they had the conference? Right here in Elim. Right here in Elim, the first of its kind. Ost is recounted in this book saying, “By now you have been Christians long enough to know what is needed to carry on work and that you yourselves must support your own missionaries.” So I read that and thought, you know what he’s talking about? He’s talking about, “You’ve been clothed. You’ve been clothed with power from on high.” He said this, “We white people have come here to Alaska simply to help and support you. Now the time is come for you to take over
part of the responsibility.” At that conference in Elim Wilson and Minni Gonangnan with in 1919, hearts were stirred, and I just have to believe daughter (N.D.) that God’s Spirit moved. What else could explain that they made a decision—at that first church conference – to consecrate a missionary? And that missionary, Wilson Gonongnan, you know where he went? I still don’t know how they decided this, but they decided to go to the Yukon River. And you can now go and worship where Pastor Don [Cross] serves at Mountain Village Covenant Church because they decided to go to Mountain Village. The Gospel needed to be proclaimed on the Yukon River, and so they began a work. They began small. Finances were challenging. But the church has remained. Their hearts were stirred. God’s Spirit gave them power. God’s Spirit moved them to be generous. Listen to I just have to believe there what they gave besides dollars and cents. They gave dried fish, is a boat called hope that seal skin, articles of fur—fox, you and I need to get into beaver, squirrel, reindeer, and once again wolf. Those are all common offerings. Even a whale was given. How about that, huh? Wouldn’t that be freaky if someone brought in a whale for offering? Well that’s what was given. Why? To help them. To prepare them. To help meet their supplies. God’s Spirit moved in the hearts of the people of Elim, and what was the message? That you can take a greater responsibility for the work that is going on here in Alaska. And their response was to go plant a church in 1919 in Mountain Village. Over the next twenty years or so, eight more churches were planted. They didn’t have computers; they didn’t have airplanes; they didn’t have iPhones; they hardly had Bible training. But what did they
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have? They had the presence of God’s Spirit, the Spirit that give us a power that was like the power that God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. That hasn’t changed, friends. And over the next eight years listen to these names. These are the church planters of the day in the early 1900s of the work of the Covenant: Wilson Gonangnan, Misha Ivanoff, Jacob Kenick, Harry Soxie, Sigfried Aukongak, Reuben Paniptchuk, Oscar Andrewyuk. Those were the people. And for me, they have become the people from Hebrews 11. If I was going to write Hebrews 11, these are the people who I would put. And I would include Alice, Minni, and Sarah who were the wives of Wilson and Jacob and Misha. They were sisters. They had faith, they had a stirring to move and to go, just as Jesus prepared his people and said, “Wait, you’re going to be clothed in power from on high.” Those people were moved by God’s Spirit, and they went, by faith. Their resources, you might say, were meager. We tend to look back at anything historically and say we’re much better today than they were. But I think it is true to say that they didn’t have much, and yet God moved and planted eight new churches throughout western Alaska. I just want to say and exhort us to open up our hearts to what God would do for us in this new chapter as the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska. We might get a new name tomorrow—some kind of conference, maybe Alaska Conference. We’re gonna vote; we’ll see. Constitution and bylaws they provide structure, but it’s God’s Holy Spirit—the Spirit that shook those believers in Sweden—that shook them so much that two of them got shaken right to Alaska. And we’re children of that revival; maybe we’re great grandchildren of that revival. I don’t know how revival begins. I just happen to think, though, that it begins when people, when we hunger and thirst and earnestly pray and ask God to give us his Spirit. You know the challenges we face. You know there’s young people who need to be reached. We need to pray for God’s Spirit to clothe us and empower us and shake us. Shake us so that we might be generous, that we might have faith, we might have vision, we might have courage. So, L.E. Ost brought them in his boat, Wilson and Minni, in his boat to Mountain Village. Do you know what the name of his boat was? I love this story. The name of his boat was “Hope.” For real, I’m not making this up. The name of his boat was “Hope.” And I just have to believe that once again as we come here, there
is a boat called hope that God would want you to step into to go somewhere. It might not be far. It might not seem grand to you, but we do not despise the small things that God would do in our midst. I just have to believe there is a boat called hope that you and I need to get into once again, and depend and receive and be clothed with that power from on high, with that blessing. Our God wants to pour out favor upon you. So I want to encourage you, I want to encourage us, to open up and receive that. Don said earlier that tonight is a night that you say can say “yes” to Jesus. Maybe tonight you’ve come to this conference feeling challenged, feeling tired. Friends, God wants to give you power. God wants to give you blessing. He gives us hope—a boat called hope to get into. So I encourage us as we move forward, even tonight: change your clothes. Change your clothes, and be clothed with God’s Spirit. Pray with me. Thank you, Jesus. For the blessing that you give us. For the favor that you show us. That we might be called your children, one of your beloved children. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your Spirit that empowers us, that empowers us to live lives that reflect you, that empowers us to love our neighbor, that empowers us to go, to have faith, to have courage, to have vision. And we would pray that tonight, Lord, we would receive and be clothed with power from on high. It’s nothing fantastic, but it gives life. So give us life once again, Jesus, by the power of your Spirit, and move us forward into a new chapter of the Covenant churches of Alaska, clothed in power. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit I pray, Amen.
Curtis Ivanoff is the superintendent of the Alaska Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Read more about Alaska’s transfer from field to conference in the following Covenant Companion articles: “Raising ‘New Sails’ for Alaska Covenant Church” (June 25, 2014); “Alaska Covenanters Make Historic Vote” (March 31, 2015).
Native Missionaries in Rural Alaska Eva Malvich
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any native Alaskans served as missionaries and lay pastors during the foundational years of the Covenant Church of Alaska. The following biographical snapshots offer a sampling of the ministry of five courageous lay pastors for the Evangelical Covenant Church around the territory of Alaska from 1919 to the 1950s. Before they became Covenant lay pastors, native Alaskans Jacob Kenick, Wilson Gonangnan, and Reuben Paniptchuk managed the herd of reindeer owned and operated by the Covenant Church of Sweden in northern Alaska. Reindeer were introduced to Alaska from Russia at the turn of the twentieth century, in response to the depletion of food sources caused by • Harry Soxie, a native of Unalakleet, worked out of outside interest groups entering Alaska and exploiting Hooper bay, Shaktoolik, and Diomede. Interested its natural resources. It was not uncommon for misin Siberia, Soxie, along with George Taruk, Swedsion schools to receive a herd on loan from the Buish missionary Bohman and Nils Hojer traveled reau of Education. As he was in charge of the Golovin by boat to Siberia in the summer of 1924. They mission, upon enterwere able to preach at several communities along ing Alaska in 1913, the coast but were forced out and had to return to These men were Covenant missionary Alaska. L.E. Ost was given the vital to reindeer large task of managing herding as well as • Oscar Andrewyuk (who owned his own reindeer herd at one time) and his son George Andrewyuk 13,000 reindeer. church leaders in were active in the church as lay pastors. Oscar These Alaska served in Hooper Bay, and George in nearby their own right. Natives were vital Scammon Bay. When George died, the comto reindeer herding munity asked Oscar to continue his son’s work in as well as church leaders in their own right. They Scammon Bay. Oscar Andrewyuk is credited with courageously left the familiarity and security of their building the first Covenant Church in Scammon homes in service to the gospel. Their biographies are Bay in 1930. few but speak a great deal about the work they had in front of them. • Reuben Paniptchuk (b. 1889, Egg Island) was a native lay pastor who served in Shaktoolik, • Wilson Gonangnan was sent to Mountain Village Koyuk, Mountain Village, St. Michael, and Elim, in 1919 as the first lay pastor of the Covenant in returning to Shaktoolik to serve there until 1965. Alaska. He was there just as the flu epidemic ended. Mountain Village was one of a few communities in the state that administered a quarantine to stop people from spreading this deadly illness to its community members. This effort resulted in zero deaths for the village residents.
• Jacob Kenick was born in Golovin in 1886. He served as a lay pastor starting in Hooper Bay (1936–1942), serving additionally in Mekoryuk, Unalakleet, Nome, and Koyuk.
Portrait of Alaska missionary group (1932)
Eva Malvich is the director and curator of Yupiit Piciryarait Museum in Bethel, Alaska. She grew up in the tiny community of Mekoryuk (pop. 200). Her maternal grandfather, John K. Johnson, was a lay pastor in his hometown of Scammon Bay. Her mother, Eula David, was a student of L.E. Ost.
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From the Archives
The Historical Photograph Collection: Alaska in Pictures Anna-Kajsa Anderson
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he Covenant Archives and Historical Library holds over 15,000 cataloged photographs documenting a broad range of subjects relevant to the Evangelical Covenant Church and North Park University since 1885. In 2009, the archives began scanning the collection and making it available online in the Historical Photograph Collection. To date, more than 7,000 images are available for public viewing. Visit http://bit.ly/HistoricalPhotosNPU to explore the collection. Depicted below are just a few of the photographs documenting early Covenant work in Alaska.
Three generations of native women (N.D.)
Group camping, Golovin (N.D.)
Vegetables from the mission garden (N.D.)
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Articles made by the sewing class, Yakutat (1916)
eginning June 28, the archives’ digital collections will have a new look! In addition to being mobile-friendly, upgraded software will provide a simplified interface for viewing collections as well as a homepage layout featuring recently added items. Be sure to subscribe to RSS feeds for updates on your favorite collections!
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To date, more than 7,000 images are available for public viewing.
Dog sled team (1913)
Beginning construction of Unalakleet Children’s Home
Woman fishing for cod (N.D.) Aerosled, White Mountain (N.D.)
Portrait of L.E. Ost and Ruth Ost (N.D.)
The archives wants to hear from you!
Students from Covenant School (N.D.)
Descriptive information of photographs (dates, places, names, etc.) can be adjusted. If you have comments, corrections, or can help us identify copyright holders, please contact us at archives@northpark.edu or (773) 244-6224. 9
Throwback
Covenant Reprints
Alaska in Minutes The following excerpts are reprinted from Annual Meeting minutes of 1889 and 1972. The Covenant Church in America gained its first world mission field in 1889, four years after its official organization. The field was Alaska, and the circumstances noteworthy. The Covenant Church of Sweden (est. 1878) had begun work in Alaska in 1887, sending missionaries and establishing mission stations. (See the Frisk Collection of Alaska Mission Journals: http://bit.ly/ AlaskaJournals.) Wishing to join this work, the American Covenant requested the transfer of Swedish missionary Axel Karlson. The Covenant Church of Sweden agreed – on the condition that the Americans assume responsibility not only for Karlson but the entire Alaska mission. These correspondences are preserved in the minutes reproduced below, translated by Fred O. Jansson. After this beginning, Alaska remained a “foreign mission” field (though the United States had purchased the territory from Russia in 1867), until it was transferred to “home mission” in 1972. This decision is recorded in the minutes of 1972, printed below. The full text of these and other Annual Meeting reports are available online through the Frisk Collection of Covenant Yearbooks (http://bit.ly/CovenantYearbooks).
1889 [p. 211] Report to the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant’s Fifth Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the 5th of September, 1889
To the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America.
Dear brothers and friends of the meeting,
Dear Brothers in the Lord!
God’s peace!
Grace and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ!
The Covenant’s committee met in Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, the 12th of September, 1889, when the following business was brought up and was taken care of [translator’s note: It is obvious that the date of September 12, 1889 is a mistake because this is reporting on September 5, 1889]: As it relates to the annual meeting’s decision about the Covenant here in America should be allowed to take over missionary Karlson in Alaska in its service, it was assigned to the secretary to write about it to the Covenant in Sweden. Missionary Karlson, who was present at the meeting was even urged to share with the Covenant in Sweden his thoughts as it related to the named decision. 10
… [p. 213] The above-named writing as it relates to the Alaska mission has been sent to the Covenant’s in Sweden [sic] chairman, Pastor E.J. Eckman. As an answer to it we can share:
Your writing of the last 9th of February regarding taking over missionary Karlson and his work in Northern Alaska was referred to the Swedish Mission Covenant’s annual meeting last June 27–30 at Stockholm to the gathered delegates. That of you in the writing referred to reason to turn over the Alaska mission to you, seemed to be so reasonable to the delegates that they expressed the condition that the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America take over all of our Alaska Mission, that is to say all of our missionary work both in Northern and Southern Alaska. Any division of the mission field in Alaska one did not feel he wanted it to happen….
Letter from E.J. Eckman to C.A. Björk regarding the transfer of the Alaska mission (November19,1889)
Only at Yakutat has our mission built a building for the mission’s account. But on his departure last May, Karlson had a building with him from San Francisco for the existing station in Northern Alaska. In the meantime the delegates decided that this property should without charge be turned over to the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America, in the [p. 214] event that they take over all the named mission. Committing this thing to the Lord’s hand and under the sincere wish that the decision that is to be made may serve to the glorification of God’s name among our fellowmen, brotherly I ask that I may receive your answer as soon as possible. Stockholm, the 29th of July, 1889 In behalf of the Swedish Mission Covenant: E.J. Ekman, chairman …[p. 235] Inasmuch as the Covenant in Sweden has decided to turn over the Alaska mission to the Covenant in America we propose that the Covenant herewith with joy take over the named mission.
1972 The administration of Alaska, eighty-two years under World Mission, has been transferred to the governance of Home Mission. The new arrangement began February 1, 1972, with the exception that radio station KICY will hopefully be transferred to the Department of Home Mission, February 1, 1973. (Milton B. Engebretson, Report of the President, Covenant Yearbook 1971–72, p. 70) Howard I. Slwooko Sr., was elected superintendent for the Eskimo churches in Alaska. This is the first time a native Alaskan has been elected to that post. (Board of World Mission Report, Covenant Yearbook 1971–72, p. 147)
Regarding taking over missionary Karlson and his work in Northern Alaska…. the delegates… expressed the condition that the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America take over all of our Alaska Mission
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Covenant History F r i ends of
Summer/Fall 2015 The Friends of Covenant History newsletter is produced biannually by the Commission on Covenant History. To become a member of Friends of Covenant History visit http://bit.ly/FCHjoin, or contact Andy Meyer (773-244-5585) to receive a registration form by postal mail. Photos courtesy of the Covenant Archives and Historical Library, North Park University, Chicago, Illinois