FOP/ECO announce next national gathering
The Layman, October 25, 2012
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The next national gathering of the Fellowship of Presbyterians and ECO: A Covenant Order of Presbyterians has been scheduled for Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Fla.
The gathering will include the inaugural synod meeting of ECO. Business to be discussed at the synod meeting will include the ordination process. All pastors, associate pastors, assistant pastors and affiliate pastors serving under ECO’s polity can attend the meeting. Each congregation may also send an equal number of elders, as long as they adhere to ECO’s essential tenets.
Confirmed speakers for the 2013 event include:
- Jim Mellado will discuss creating a new movement. He is an Olympic athlete, graduate of Harvard Business School and president of the Willow Creek Association;
- Joe Small, former director of Theology, Worship and Education in the Presbyterian Church (USA) will lead a study of the French Confession (1559), and
- Gary Haugen, president and CEO of International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, exploitation and oppression worldwide.
More information about the event and the gathering will be posted on the FOP/ECO website.
Videos of presentations given at the summer gatherings, held in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Atlanta, Ga. – including Timothy Keller, Terry Gyger, Richard Mouw, John Azumah and Jim Singleton – have been posted on the website.
The website lists 18 churches in seven states and 41 pastors in nine states as members of ECO. Dana Allin, president of ECO, told The Layman that 40 churches are currently in the process of seeking entry into ECO.
One hundred and five churches have joined the Fellowship of Presbyterians which is related to ECO in that they share essentials and practices, but FOP churches will remain within the Presbyterian Church (USA) and be governed by that denomination’s polity.
The formation of ECO was announced at the January 2012 meeting of the Fellowship of Presbyterians. It is a denomination committed to growing and planting churches and nurturing leaders and its distinctives include an emphasis on connecting leaders in accountable relationships, peer review systems for churches, leadership training and a flat polity structure. ECO has a written polity and discipline document and theology document to guide those in the new denomination.
ECO was formerly known as the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. The name was changed on April 9 after the ECC notified the new denomination about its concerns about possible confusion over the closeness of the names.