Dear ECA members, candidates, friends and associates:

Grace Community Church
Surprise, Arizona

Greetings in the matchless name of Jesus as we proceed in this new year!  We are looking forward to our upcoming 2025 Winter Gathering and Ordination Ceremony, being held Friday, January 31, at Grace Community Church, in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, Arizona.  The evening affair commences at 6:30 p.m. MST and will include worship and a sacred ordination ceremony, concluding at approximately 9:00 p.m.  This year's event theme, continuing last year's, is Discerning Boundaries in Ministry, highlighting the demands of ministry in our modern day, especially with the advent of cell phones, voicemail, texts, and email, all creating accessibility virtually anytime, and which can inadvertently induce unavoidable stress leading to exasperation, exhaustion, and burnout.  Tragically, in some cases, this results in abandoning the call.  In one instance, when the apostles returned from an assignment, they briefed Jesus on all they had accomplished.  Amidst their enthusiasm and the busyness of ministry, however, the Lord, understanding the need for boundaries, said to them in Mark 6:31, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.”

Chaplain Paul Rudatsikira, a senior chaplain with a specialty in grief recovery and serving at Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, will deliver the ordination address on the above-referenced theme.  Ordained with the ECA, Chaplain Rudatsikira received his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.  To learn more about this brother in Christ and for additional details regarding the ceremony, view the bulletin by clicking here.

All applicants for individual membership to the ECA may attend the gathering and ordination ceremony.  Even so, only those whom the ECA office has notified as having been approved for this particular event as candidates and scheduled for an oral ordination or licensure examination to be held earlier that day at the church will be eligible to be examined.  For those who have not submitted their completed application packets for the occasion, the deadline is Monday the 20th.  

All attendees, including family, friends, church elders, or other guests, must be registered by clicking here. The registration page can also be accessed through the "EVENTS" tab on the homepage of the ECA website, www.ecainternational.org.  A recommended hotel is provided on the registration page.  

I hope to see you on the 31st for some ECA fellowship at Grace Community Church.  Until then, may you be "strong in the Lord and the power of His might."

For the ECA family of faith,
Dr. Robert H. Turrill
President & CEO
Military Chaplain Endorser

Num. 6:24