ESTES PARK, CO (June 28, 2011) – Registration continued today for the 126th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church, which begins with this evening’s opening worship service in the auditorium of the YMCA of the Rockies camp and convention center nestled in the majestic Rocky Mountains west of Denver.

The evening worship will be broadcast live over the Covenant website – instructions will be found on the website home page or at CovChurch.tv. The service begins at 8 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

The YMCA campus was a busy place throughout the day today as some participants of the just-concluded Feast celebration began packing for the return trip home, following a weekend of praise and worship, personal discipleship and growth activities, times of fellowship and a variety of fun-filled activities. The weather cooperated, with bright sunshine and brilliant blue skies creating a spectacular backdrop for the snow-capped Rockies that surround the YMCA facility.

Many of the Feast participants remained on campus to participate in the Annual Meeting, which concludes Thursday with the traditional ordination service. Tonight’s preacher is Ruth Hill, who served for more than a decade as executive minister of Women Ministries. A more complete schedule of Annual Meeting activities, including speakers for the evening and morning worship services, will be found on the Covenant website. All five worship services (three evening and two morning) will be broadcast live.

Also scheduled for live broadcast during the week’s activities are the welcoming of new churches on Wednesday morning and the report of President Gary Walter. The website schedule lists the approximate times for these two broadcasts, recognizing that they may fluctuate somewhat given the nature of business sessions and related discussion. All broadcasts will be archived on the website for later viewing, however.

Live broadcast of the new church welcoming is designed to allow congregants of these churches who could not make the trip to Estes Park to participate in this exciting event in real time. The same holds true for Thursday’s ordination service – members of churches whose pastors are being ordained can join in the celebration through the live broadcasts. A number of churches set up their fellowship areas to bring in an Internet feed and a large screen television, inviting those in the congregation to join together in that celebration.

A seven-member news team will be writing stories, taking photographs, filming videos and capturing other event-related material to share on the Covenant website throughout each day. Stories are posted within minutes of key decisions being made, awards being given or other events taking place during business sessions.

Click here to register to receive the free Covenant Newswire email-based news headline service. It delivers one email each day containing the headlines and some copy of all Covenant Newswire stories published during the previous 24-hour period. Smartphone users will want to have the free CovLink application that supports both iPhone and Android devices – it also works for iPads. The applications contains news stories, events information, a collection of videos, and the popular Find-A-Church tool, among other features.