(10/18/2005)

Oldest Evangelical Association Appoints Schenck to Board
Reverened Rob Schenck to serve on ECA's international board of directors

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 -- The Evangelical Church Alliance (ECA), America's oldest association of Evangelical ministers, churches and organizations, has appointed the Reverend Rob Schenck, president of Washington, DC based Faith and Action and its affiliate, the National Clergy Council, to the group's international board of directors. This will be his second term on the board.

The ECA (www.ecainternational.org) was originally formed in 1887 as the World's Faith Missionary Association, changing its name in 1931 to the Fundamental Ministerial Association and in 1958 to the current Evangelical Church Alliance or ECA. The ECA issues credentials and provides oversight for clergy serving mostly in independent churches, religious organizations, on the mission field or in institutional and government chaplaincy. Of all US -based Evangelical church organizations, the ECA currently certifies the largest number of active duty military chaplains. It is also an member organization of the National Association of Evangelicals and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Rev. Rob Schenck is a commissioned missionary to elected and appointed officials on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. He has been seen lately in the news for the prayer vigils that he and a colleague, Presbyterian minister the Reverend Patrick J. Mahoney, have organized around the nomination of John Roberts to the United States Supreme Court. Rev. Schenck was also quoted widely on recent comments by the Reverend Pat Robertson regarding Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Rev. Schenck, who was raised Jewish and professed faith in Christ as a teenager, has served on Capitol Hill for eleven years. Previous to this assignment he founded and for 12 years directed Operation Serve International, a Christian humanitarian relief agency now headquartered in Hamilton, Ohio. Before that he held posts as an associate pastor and youth minister. He is a graduate of the Buffalo (NY) School of the Bible, Berean College and Faith Evangelical Lutheran Seminary where he completed his master of arts in Christian ministry. He also holds an honorary doctor of divinity from St. Paul Christian University.