By Stan Friedman

MERCER ISLAND, WA (May 27, 2014) — The Pacific Northwest Conference debuted its new website last week to reflect the recent name change from North Pacific Conference.

Delegates to the conference’s Annual Meeting approved the change last month.

“On one hand, it’s correcting our name to align with what is more commonly used by the general population to refer to this region,” said Superintendent Greg Yee. “But more importantly, we wanted a name change to mark a new season—a time to recommit to what it means to be #AllTogether—our Annual Meeting theme. As we look ahead toward our 125th anniversary in 2015, our Executive Board and staff believed a name change would help mark this new chapter for our family of 79 churches.”

In 1890, the first four Covenant churches in the conference, which were located in Portland, Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma, formed the Swedish Christian Mission Association of the West. “They formed out of a deep sense of mission opportunity that God showed them,” Yee said.

“Our churches have been faithfully ministering for 125 years, but we recognize the complex challenges of our contemporary mission field,” Yee added. “This doesn’t scare us. It just reminds us that we need to continue to open our eyes and ears, to open our hearts and minds to what God desires our coalition of churches to do. A new and more familiar name reminds us that God has called to and empowered us in this familiar place we call home, the Pacific Northwest.”