Religious Pluralism Minnesota Group Members

The Rev. Cynthia Bronson Sweigert is an Episcopal priest of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota (ECMN) where she has served part-time at various churches. She is also the current Diocesan officer for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations. She was also Associate for Interreligious Programming at what used to be known as the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ) in NYC; and Executive Director of the Buffalo Area Metropolitan Ministries (BAMM), a multifaith organization. Cynthia is in her eighth year of being the Organizer for the Taking Heart Open Houses program co-sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Churches(MCC) and the Muslim American Society of MN (MAS-MN). She volunteers with the Minnesota Multifaith Network (MnMN), working to connect the Speakers' Bureau with people wishing to create interfaith/multifaith programs.

The Rev. Grant H. Abbot, retired Episcopal priest, former ecumenical and interfaith officer of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, former execuRve director of the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches (now Interfaith AcRon of Greater Saint Paul).

Jan M. Phillips, Ph.D., retired, is a member of Temple of Aaron Synagogue; author of Jan Phillips Research Database, incl. topics: 'anti-Judaism', 'Antisemitism', etc., at the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St Thomas.

Rabbi Norman M. Cohen, A.B., M.A.H.L., D.D. Founding Rabbi Emeritus: Bet Shalom Congregation, Minnetonka, MN, Graduate of Holy Cross College & Hebrew Union College, Former and Present Faculty Member: Xavier U, Edgecliff College, St. Olaf, Macalester, UTS, St. Catharine’s, St. Thomas, Holy Cross, HUC, Author of Jewish Bible Personages in the New Testament and Sacred Architecture: The Building of Bet Shalom, as well as numerous published articles and sermons, Past president: Midwest Association of Reform Rabbis; MN Rabbinical Association.

Ann Lewis is a Presbyterian lay leader in one of the largest Presbyterian churches in Minnesota, House of Hope, Saint Paul, and Chair of their highly respected Didier Lecture Series at the church. She has spent the last 30 years studying and working to help overcome Christian Anti-Judaism and Christian exclusivism.

John W. Matthews is a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and Luther Theological Seminary (St. Paul), ordained in 1975, and a parish minister for forty-four years. He did further graduate study at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Since 1975, he has been actively involved in The American Academy of Religion, The International Bonhoeffer Society and The International Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Church Struggle. He was a founding member of the ELCA Consultative Panel for Lutheran-Jewish Relations (1990-2000). While on the Consultative Panel, he assisted in drafting the “Statement to the Jewish Community” which is now a part of the permanent display on anti-ti at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. After a decade as vice-president of The International Bonhoeffer Society-English Language SecRon, he was elected President (2005). Pastor Mathews has published Anxious Souls Will Ask: the Christ-centered Spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Bonhoeffer: A Brief Overview of the Life and Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was on the board of World Without Genocide at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, and he is currently active in the Minnesota Multifaith Network.

Tom Duke, Ph.D., Tom is an ordained Lutheran pastor (ELCA retired). Before retiring he served for 15 years as Executive Director of the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches (now Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul). Earlier he was Fellow at the Wesley Center, Hamline University; Director of Community Care Resources, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation; a parish pastor and instructor in pastoral theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. He now is a volunteer and member of the Network Council of the Minnesota Multifaith Network (MnMN).