Colonial Church Staff

Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Rouner, Jr. ~
   Senior Minister Emeritus

Phone: 952.946.6990 (Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation)
e-mail: pilgrimcenter@pilgrimcenter.org

In September 1962, Arthur and Molly Rouner came from Eliot Church in Newton, Massachusetts to help this high potential church in the congregational denomination grow and serve through what turned out to be three tumultuous decades in America's life.

Colonial Church grew by committing to mission in the inner city and across the world, by initiating the first youth ministry of Edina, developing a serious biblical and theo1ogicaI study program for adults, developing schools of prayer and healing services, and encouraging Edina and the Twin Cities to serve the world in a ministry of love.

Arthur's passion was for America and its foundations in evangelical faith, and for a high doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

The call to five Edina churches to help alleviate the famine of the early 1980s took Arthur to Africa annually, resulting finally in a call to a healing ministry of reconciliation in the genocide countries of Rwanda and Burundi, which is the focus of the mission of the Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation, which Arthur and Molly founded in 1994. They work together in Africa during two six-week periods each year to lead healing retreats in Rwanda, Burundi, and along the Kenya-Uganda border.

Arthur is a graduate of the The Choate Preparatory School, Harvard College, amd Union Seminary in New York. He also studied a year at New College in Edinburgh, Scotland, earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Seminary, and holds honorary doctorates of Divinity from Piedmont and Elmhurst Colleges.

The Rouners have six children and seven grandchildren. Arthur is a single sculler and a mountain climber in his native New Hampshire. He has published over a dozen books in Congregational Church history; in issues of love, marriage, and sexuality; in prayer and the Holy Spirit; in healing; in ideas of the Christian call and ministry service; and in the faith foundations of democracy. His books, audio and video tapes can be found through www.pilgrimcenter.org.

Arthur's love is people and his work is to serve them personally, here and across the world. He leads annual "Journeys of the Heart" to East Africa, to New England, to the Indian Reservations and into the canoe country of the Minnesota wilderness.

The Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation

  • "There's More to Life" - Weekly television program - Mondays @ 8 PM on Ch. 6
  • Daily Faith Line: 952.946.7987.
  • Web site: www.pilgrimcenter.org

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