I'm so happy to join Mindekirken. I have been thinking of this for more than 30 years, but it was just recently I learned about the associate membership.

These were the approximate words of Alby Leithe who was presented as a new associate member on Sun. Sept. 28. Having Norwegian roots and being interested in keeping his heritage, Leithe almost had a bad conscience for not being a member of Mindekirken. Now he feels good about it.

An Eden Prairie church is his primary church home, but the associate membership expresses that he belongs to Mindekirken, too.
Alby's wife, Janice, also has joined, along with their daughter, Joni.

We have approximately 1500 on the Communicator mailing list. 158 of these are households of full members. An additional 156 are associate member households, who, except for having a vote at congregational meetings, take part in the life of the congregation to varying extents.

Membership is not required to worship or take part in activities at Mindekirken. Yet, I guess quite a few of you might be interested in considering some kind of membership. Maybe you didn't even know about the option of associate membership. Application forms are available from the church office (612) 874-0716. We'll have an orientation for applicants on Dec. 21, (1 p.m.) and the presentation of the new members on Sun., Dec. 28. JD