SURREY, BC (May 1, 2013) – Albert Josephson is being remembered today as one of the “pillars” of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada, where he served as pastor and superintendent.

Josephson, 88, died Tuesday night while in hospice care. Services are pending.

“He is really the last of those raised in Canada who were the pillars of the ECC Canada for so many years,” said current superintendent Jeff Anderson, adding, “Albert was really our first strategic church planter.”

Josephson was born July 23, 1924, in Benito, Manitoba. He attended Shurpass Pacific College and Covenant Bible College.

He married Anna Lind on June 23, 1950. She survives.

Josephson served as a circuit pastor of Covenant congregations in Alder Flats, Breton, and Warburg, Alberta; Calgary Covenant Church in Calgary, Alberta; Melfort Covenant Church in Melfort, Saskatchewan; Edmonton Covenant Church in Edmonton, Alberta; and Emmanuel Covenant Church in Surrey, British Columbia.

He served as conference superintendent from 1969 to 1978 while also serving as pastor of the Edmonton and then the Green Timbers congregations.

His interest in the churches remained long after he retired, Anderson said. “Whenever we would visit, his question would be, ‘Tell me about the field – how is it going in our churches?’ If I happened to skip a few, he would always make me go back and fill in the blanks.”

His exuberance for ministry also continued Anderson said. “When Albert was in his mid-seventies, I asked him to go to a church that needed an interim pastor. He went and was used by God to breathe joy and life into what had been a difficult place. I still remember the church chair talking to me after Albert and Anna had left and saying, ‘It was so wonderful to have them with us, but I have to be honest, we couldn’t keep up with his pace – we are kind of exhausted, but in the best sense of that word!’ ”

“He personified all the wonderful aspects of the Covenant Church in Canada,” said Dean Lundgren, the denomination’s director of pensions and vice president of finance.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons, Allan Josephson and Neil Josephson, and a daughter, Joan Hendrickson.

Covenant News Service will publish additional information as it becomes available.