Salem was formally founded by a small group of Christian friends on August 25, 1880. We have occupied three buildings throughout our history and have been on our present site since 1969.

We are affiliated internationally with the Evangelical Covenant Church, which has its roots in historical Christianity, the Protestant Reformation, the Lutheran Church of Sweden and the spiritual awakening in Northern Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

We have been instrumental in starting several area churches in our community over its 125 plus years. Salem Covenant and First Baptist also joined together in the formation of Salem Community Corporation and its subsidiary Briarwood, a Continuing Care Retirement Community, located adjacent to our property. Our respective churches continue to be represented on the Corporation and the Board of Trustees.

Get directions using Google Maps.

From the East

Interstate 495 to Interstate 290 West to Exit 22 (Main Street, Shrewsbury)
At end of ramp, take a right, go .5 mi. to second traffic light.
Take a right and proceed 1.5 mi. to pedestrian light.
Take a right into church parking lot.

From the West

Mass Pike (Interstate 90) to Exit 10 (Interstate 290 East)
I-290 East for 9.8 mi. to Exit 21 (Plantation Street)
Take a left at the bottom of the ramp.
Proceed 1.8 mi. (thru three sets of lights) to pedestrian light.
Take a right into church parking lot

From Route 9

From Route 9 out of Worcester take a left on Plantation St. at U. Mass Hospital
From Route 9 heading toward Worcester take a right on Plantation at U. Mass.
Stay on this road ~3 mi. It becomes East Mountain St.
Take a right into church parking lot.

From the North

Interstate 190 South to West Mountain St. Exit.
Take a left at the end of the Exit ramp.
Go back over I-190. Proceed thru traffic light.
Church is past Worcester Country Club golf course’s brown fences on the left.
Take a left into church parking lot.

Mark Fryholm

Reverend Mark Frykholm received a Master of Divinity degree from North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago and was ordained in 1976 by The Evangelical Covenant Church at its annual meeting in Tacoma, Washington. He has served parishes in Michigan, Minnesota and Massachusetts before accepting a call to Salem Covenant in 1999.

Get directions to Camp Charlton using Google Maps.

• Take I-290 W (it will become I-395 after you pass the Mass. Pike) to exit 4B
• At first set of lights (Oxford Center), go straight
• After 2 miles, you’ll come to a blinking red light—Go straight
• One mile later Buffumville State Park is on the left
• Take the first left after Buffumville State Park (there is no street name sign)
• 1 mile to stop sign at 4-way intersection—Go straight
• 1 mile later take left onto Daniels Road
• Camp Charlton is 1 mile down on the left (Pineland Drive)

Get directions to Pilgrim Pines using Google Maps.

• Take Route 190 N to Route 2 W (EXIT 29B).
• Follow Route 2 West to Route 140 North (EXIT 24B).
• At the end of Route 140, turn left onto Route 12 North. Follow thru Winchendon, MA, and Fitzwilliam and Troy, NH.
• After passing thru the center of Troy, you will travel a two mile long downgrade. At the bottom of this downgrade, you will pass a “Coach and Four Motor Inn” on your left.
• A half mile beyond this, turn left onto Flat Roof Mill Road. (If you pass the Hyundai/Toyota/Volvo/Honda Dealerships, you have gone too far.)
• Follow Flat Roof Mill Road, which becomes South Road to Route 32 North.
• Turn right onto Route 32 then an immediate left onto Swanzey Lake Road.
• Follow approximately 2.2 miles to West Shore Road.
• Turn right at the “Pilgrim Pines One Mile” sign.

Brad Hendrickson

In addition to being a lifelong member, Brad has also been organist and choir director at Salem for over 25 years. He received his early training at All Saint’s Church, first as a choir boy and then as assistant organist to Henry Hokans. His organ study was with Mr. Hokans. Before coming to Salem, he was organist at the First Congregational Church and Bethel Lutheran Church, both in Auburn, MA. Brad especially enjoys his time with the senior choir.
Brad enjoys golf and spending time at his home on Cape Cod with his family and friends.

Salem Covenant Church celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2005. One part of the celebration was the production of a DVD, which may be viewed in four parts below:

Chapters 1 and 2:

Chapter 3a:

Chapter 3b:

Chapter 4 through 6:

by E. Malcolm Parkinson.

Foreword by Roger W. Palmquist, pastor of Salem Covenant Church from 1977-1984.

Foreword

History may be measured by many means, and frequently in a volume of this kind the decision is made to mark the passage of years by showing pictures which are primarily of buildings or artifacts, and by delineating events as they occurred within the periods associated with specific ministers of a church.

In preparing an historical survey of the life of our congregation we have chosen a different route. Believing that history is essentially the record of people, that time itself is meaningless apart from the manner in which people make use of it, and that the life of any church ought more be indexed by the pilgrimage of its members than anything else, we have elected to report on the first 100 years of our history by showing how God has worked in the lives of those people who have comprised our particular family of faith.

By so doing we stand in a good tradition, for we are a family whose nourishment comes directly from the Holy Scriptures, and as one reads the Bible he must be impressed by the fact it is singularly the story of people and their relationship to the Father. From the time when God covenanted with Abraham to form the Hebrew nation until the day of the Christian community which emerged after Pentecost, the Scriptures bear appropriate witness to landmark places and loyal leaders of the faith, but most of all to the many souls who, by their commitment of trust, became known as special “children of God.”

We are honored to think of ourselves as the children or people of God, and whereas our tale is brief when measured against the longer years of the Church-at-large, we count ours to be a significant story because of this. As you read, we hope you will sense the sometimes strong, sometimes gentle manner in which God has dealt with us in love striving always to mold us after the image of the Savior in whose spirit we were formed and continue to live.

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