In the 1990s, Flor Retamal united Hispanic women by co-founding Hispanic Covenant Women Ministries. Catherine Gilliard was elected to the denomination’s Executive Board, eventually becoming the first African American woman to chair the board.
Women Ministries is compiling a book that will honor the lives of these women and 12 other individuals or groups of women who have contributed to the life of the Evangelical Covenant Church over the last 100 years. The book will be available in 2007 during Triennial XII to be held August 9 -12 in Chicago.
“There have been thousands of women who have done amazing things,” says Ruth Hill, executive director of Women Ministries, “but we chose these 15 because they have uniquely impacted our denomination, changing its direction and opening doors for women to serve in all the areas where God has called and gifted them.
A chapter will be dedicated to each individual or group of women, with different writers for each chapter. The featured women include laypeople and clergy. In addition to Sahlstrom, Retamal, and Gilliard, the women are listed below by the decade during which they began the work for which they are being recognized:
- 1910 – Louisa Nyvall, Sarah Highfield, Selma Wik, and Josephine Princell organized women ministries in the Covenant.
- 1920 – Helen Sohlberg encouraged women to pursue higher education and attend North Park College.
- 1930 – Mildred Nordlund pioneered medical missionary work and inspired women to participate in fields not usually accepting women.
- 1930 – Olga Lindborg was the director of children’s work from 1930 to 1945.
- 1950 – Catherine Skanse, Clara Olson, and Connie Nelson created a leading school of nursing and enhanced the reputation of Swedish Covenant Hospital.
- 1960 – Hazel Anderson established Women Ministries as a unified ministry in the denomination.
- 1970 – Frances Anderson helped shape the future of the Covenant through heading the department of Christian education at North Park Theological Seminary.
- 1970 – Erma Chinander became the first woman to become an executive director and sit on the Council of Administrators. She also established the Triennials and inSpirit magazine.
- 1970 – Early women ordinands that included Sherron Hughes-Tremper, Carol Shimmin Nordstrom, and Mary Miller led the path for women clergy.
- 1980 – Evelyn M.R. Johnson was the first woman to head a department and the first to become a conference superintendent.
- 1980 – Adaline Bjorkman was a strong advocate for women leadership roles.
