By Stan Friedman

CHICAGO, IL (June 26, 2014) — Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW) presented three awards during the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Ministerium meeting as part of the 129th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Ting Gong was presented with the Victoria Welter Scholarship, which is awarded to a female seminarian who is a member of a Covenant church and enrolled as a full-time student at North Park Theological Seminary and pursuing a master’s degree in ministry.

Gong is a member of Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago. Originally from Shanghai, China, she came to the United States through a ministry of the church. She is in the Master of Divinity program at North Park Theological Seminary.

The Phoebe Church Planter’s Grant was awarded to Guadalupe Dany Flores. She is the pastor of Vida Plena Evangelical Covenant Church, a Spanish-speaking church plant in Chicago. She will use her $1,000 grant to sponsor a summer performing arts program for children and youth.

The award is based on Romans 16, where Phoebe of Cenchrea is sent by the apostle Paul to deliver his letter to the church in Rome. The saints at the church in Rome are instructed to “assist her in whatever matter she has need of.”

The 2014 recipient of the ACCW Evelyn M.R. Johnson Leadership Award of $500 is Rebecca Przybylski, senior pastor of New Harvest Christian Church, a Covenant congregation in Oregon, Ohio. She is a spiritual director and began her ministry as a staff pastor. Przybylski has been recognized by her greater Detroit area Covenant pastor’s cluster for her leadership among them.

The award was named in honor of the Covenant’s first woman conference superintendent. Johnson also has given leadership in many areas of the denomination.