Written by: United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities February 11, 2025

Remembering Dr. Marilyn J. Salmon, Professor Emerita of New Testament Theology

Dr. Marilyn J. Salmon, Professor Emerita of New Testament Theology (1989–2014), is fondly remembered as a committed scholar, a dedicated teacher, a faithful religious leader, and an early and passionate advocate for interfaith dialogue and understanding.

Born and raised in Minnesota, Marilyn earned her BA from Concordia College, Moorhead, her MDiv from Northwestern Theological Seminary (now Luther Seminary), and her PhD from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she developed a lifelong passion for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Marilyn worked on the Gospel of Luke in her doctoral dissertation and, in that research, advanced scholarship about the differences between Christian and Jewish readings of Scripture, work that she continued to explore throughout her life.

Dr. Mary Farrell Bednarowski, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, shares, “When Marilyn arrived in 1989, she was first among the ‘new’ faculty who arrived at United as members of the original faculty began to retire. Her joy in being at United and her love for her subject matter made her a delightful colleague.” Mary continues, “She certainly opened my eyes to the widespread nature of unintended anti-Judaism in Christian theology and preaching, and she was generous in sharing elements of her own spiritual journey. And, I still have her recipe for lamb stew.”

Marilyn was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1990 and served for many years at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul. Active in the diocese, she also worked as part of the Bishop’s Staff in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota as a Missioner for the School for Formation, helping create classes that would serve lay and ordained ministers. In these and other roles, she contributed in significant ways to the vitality and strength of the church.

A challenging but revered teacher, Marilyn made a significant contribution to students’ more nuanced and broadened understanding of the New Testament. Students were encouraged to approach texts with creativity and imagination. They were invited to look for new ways to read familiar passages and to experiment with interpretation while also staying true to the text. Artist and sculptor Doug Abbott (’10) affirms that “Marilyn challenged and turned upside down a set of assumptions I had about my religious identity.… The foundation that came from the growth under her tutelage marvels me to this day.”

As Karen Larson (’12) attests in a Facebook comment, “I hear her voice every time I run across a passage that sounds anti-Jewish.” Dr. Lyle Schlundt (’15) adds, “She was a great teacher. [I] will never forget her saying, ‘Jesus was a Jew talking to other Jews about Judaism.’” Maureen Smith (’01) notes, “I often quote her in the Bible study I lead at my church. I say my New Testament teacher said one of her missions in life was to restore to the Pharisees their good name.” “She was an engaging professor and always very kind to me,” asserts Amanda McElray Hunter (’10). “Her legacy and commitment to building peace through interfaith work will live on through her students.”

Rev. T. Michael Rock, Director of Contextual Education and Spiritual Direction, adds, “As a contextual education supervisor for many of Dr. Salmon’s students, I was always impressed with their exegetical acumen, good historical criticism and knowledge, and practical applications of scripture. Like many gifted seminary professors, Dr. Salmon had a lasting impact on the local church through her students.” In a testament to her myriad achievements, Marilyn was awarded the Founders Medallion by the Graduate Studies department at Hebrew Union College. Awarded to a PhD graduate from at least 25 years ago, she was honored for her support of “vibrant faith communities.”

Her leadership skills were also evident at United where she served in a variety of administrative roles, including acting dean. Dr. Kita McVay (’96, ’09), former United President, writes, “Marilyn and I worked closely together as colleagues when Dean Richard Weis took sabbatical and Marilyn stepped in as acting dean. Marilyn could hold in tension the multiple interests within the seminary, from fundraising to analyzing new models of education, and brought her deep experience of United and its singular identity to the role of acting dean. Her own spiritual journey had no stopping point, and Marilyn continued pushing the boundaries to find her authentic place. Her conversion to Judaism was, of course, a major milestone in the journey. She found at Mount Zion a home where her exploration could continue, a warm community, and, much too soon, a locus for final consecration.”

Marilyn’s gifts to the community included leadership in interreligious engagement. For many years, she served on the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning advisory board. The Center was founded in 1985 at the College (now University) of St. Thomas. A gifted speaker, she delivered lectures and led workshops locally and across the United States on the Bible, Feminism, and interfaith dialogue. She taught adult education series for churches and ecumenical and interfaith organizations, and she frequently facilitated Continuing Education workshops, helping participants find creative ways to approach the Lectionary texts for preaching.

In 2006, Marilyn’s book Preaching without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Judaism was published. She sought to address practically ways in which Christian preachers often unintentionally perpetuate anti-Judaism in their teaching and sermons. This publication, dedicated to her sons, in the hope that one day they would ask her why she had to write it, was a culmination of her lifelong work. Reflecting on her ongoing scholarship, Marilyn wrote, “I want our students to be passionate, creative, responsible interpreters of the Scriptures, knowledgeable about both ancient contexts and contemporary audience….I am committed to raising awareness of the caricatures of Judaism that permeate biblical preaching and teaching and perpetuate Christian anti-Judaism. I believe that the integrity of the Christian Gospel is at stake.”

In 2015, just after her retirement, Marilyn was the Didier Seminar Speaker at The House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, filling in for the widely respected New Testament scholar and theologian Marcus J. Borg, who had recently died. “Jesus Then and Now” was the title of her address.

Later in life, Marilyn’s commitment to her scholarship and devotion to the study of theology and biblical texts led her to discern a calling away from the priesthood in the Episcopal Church and into Judaism. She became an active member and participant in her community of Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, where she continued to share her many gifts.

As President Molly T. Marshall observes, “United grieves the death of this fine scholar-practitioner who expanded the seminary’s inter-religious engagement. Treasured as a professor and beloved colleague, we give thanks for her graceful imprint.”

United gives thanks for the many ways in which Marilyn served students, alums, fellow faculty, and the broader community, working to promote peace and understanding about diverse faith traditions and expressions. May her memory be a blessing for us all.

A service for Marilyn was held at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul on Thursday, February 13, at 12:30 PM. You can live-stream the service. A Celebration of Life followed the service at Shamrocks in St. Paul. Everyone was welcome at both events. For more information, you can read Marilyn’s obituary here.

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October 9, 2026

Alums Homecoming News Releases

Rev. Dr. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell (’06) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is excited to announce that Rev. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell, PhD—who earned his MA in Theology and Biblical Interpretation from United in 2006—has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Alum. An accomplished preacher, teacher, and published author, Dr. Tredwell has championed biblical narratives that affirm the divinity of all people, regardless of their race, creed, color, class, gender, or sexuality. Adopted at age four, Lee was raised in the Baptist faith and felt called to ministry as a child. Even so, after earning a degree in Political Science and Sociology at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, he spent the first ten years of his professional life as a grain trader for Cargill. After connecting with Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway, Lee found United, and his call was reignited. He remembers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler (Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation, 1990–2020) and Dean Richard Weis* with great affection. Both teachers, he observes, “taught us to wrestle with the biblical text until it opened up and spoke.” They also introduced Lee to Black and post-colonial hermeneutics, and Rev. Dr. Weis led him to passages in Jeremiah 38 (Hebrew Bible) that sparked his interest in learning more about a Black character named Ebed-Melech. Lee also cites the influence of Rev. Dr. Christine Smith’s (Professor Emerita of Preaching 1992–2013) preaching courses on his life. In Colorado, at the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Lee completed a joint PhD program with a concentration in Religion and Social Change in 2017. Ronald Smith, a former United student who nominated Lee for this award, notes, “Dr. Tredwell has demonstrated that he is an innovator and compassionate leader who has served both inside the academy as a professor of African American Preaching at Iliff School of Theology, University of Colorado, Boulder, and in the larger community; he has served as [a] pastor, civil rights and human rights activist, and [a] chief executive officer in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas.” Lee’s new book—Black, Queer and Blessed: My Story and the Biblical Story Churches Don’t Teach—was published in June 2025. As the description reads, “For all who believe God-Yahweh is angry, mad, disgusted, and against LGBTQIA+ folx, regrettably, you been had, misled, took, hood-winked and bamboozled! Black, Queer and Blessed, through lived experience and the excavation of the subjugated biblical narrative of Ebed-Melech, demolishes society’s antiquated mores.” The book is part memoir and part theological reflection on the Ebed-Melech revelation. In addition to his roles as teacher, preacher, and author, Lee has specifically worked to promote adoption of Black children from foster care and create affordable housing. These days, he serves as the pastor of Theology and Community Engagement at Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Ronald Smith asserts, “Dr. Tredwell is the embodiment and an exemplar of United Theological Seminary’s mission, vision, and values.” * of blessed memory About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.

Lena K. Gardner (’15) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

[caption id="attachment_11955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] photo by Bethany Birnie[/caption] United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to announce that Lena K. Gardner—who graduated with an MA in Justice and Peace Studies in 2015—has been selected as one of our three 2026 Distinguished Alums. A highly respected social justice activist and community leader, Lena is the co-founder and executive director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), a nonprofit founded in 2015 that creates life-giving and life-saving opportunities for spiritual community and Black-centered organizing. According to Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel (’13), Lena has “been a force in the Twin Cities’ religiously rooted justice ecosystem for the last 15 years.” Dr. Voelkel, Lena’s nominator, traces Lena’s justice-organizing acumen back to 2011, when she served on the Faith Organizing Roundtable—a body that coordinated religious communities’ opposition to the anti-marriage amendment. Lena went on to champion marriage equality in the 2012–2013 legislative session. After a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old Black teen, in 2014, Lena played a key role in transforming the Faith Organizing Roundtable into the Multifaith Anti-Racism, Change & Healing or MARCH. “In that same period,” Voelkel notes, “Lena was a core team organizer of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and served on its steering committee.” Lena was deeply involved, quoted in many national and local articles, and interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio after former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in 2020. In April 2021, after a Brooklyn Center police officer killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, Lena co-wrote an article in the Sahan Journal demanding that Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecute the case, and that the Hennepin County attorney be removed. More recently, Lena embarked on another ambitious project. In May 2024, through the BLUU Cooperative Housing Initiative, she co-hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for an affordable housing complex for single parents in North Minneapolis. In a MinnPost article about the groundbreaking, Lena explained, “It’s really about trying to give back to one of the communities that made me…. We really see providing stable housing in a cooperative framework as one of the many paths to collective liberation and Black liberation. Ultimately, it’s about self-determination.” When Operation Metro Surge arrived in the Twin Cities in late 2025, Lena took action again. As Voelkel observes, she “returned to the MARCH steering committee…. When MARCH organized a clergy call (in five days) to which 700 clergy came, the ability to create and host such an amazing event owes part of its success to Lena’s relationships with communications specialists, graphic designers, and organizers.” Lena was also a driving force behind Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a mutual aid group she and Anna Stamborski founded in late 2025 to connect vulnerable ICE-targeted families with congregational networks whose members could provide shopping and transportation services. Through all of Lena’s indefatigable contributions to working for justice, Voelkel asserts, she “has focused on Black excellence, Black power, Black spiritual wholeness, Black beauty, and how non-Black folks can act in solidarity and followership of Black folks, particularly Black queer women. She has done so skillfully through building relationships across differences in ways that facilitate and deepen genuine relationships.”

Cori Berg (’98) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is elated to announce that Cori Berg (’98)—advocate, artist, and educator—is a 2026 Distinguished Alum. Cori earned her Master of Arts (MA) in Theology and the Arts in 1998, and for more than 27 years, she has integrated creativity, art, and spirituality into her field. Cori arrived at United in the 1990s, having majored in theater and minored in studio art during her undergraduate studies. “I knew I had an artistic voice,” she recalls, “but it didn’t make sense in any of the traditional contexts.” After seeing an advertisement for United’s Theology and the Arts program, Cori drove from Dallas to the Twin Cities to visit as a prospective student. A campus art exhibit by Merle Janis was all she needed to see—“this school had something I needed: strength, boldness, vulnerability.” For Cori, “life is liturgy.” She credits United with introducing her to “the freedom in a progressive faith.” At United, Cori learned to expand her creativity, which became a launching pad for a vibrant career. “United gave me a safe, nurturing space to explore, dream, and execute big things,” she writes. “I’ve continued that through the rest of my career as an artist, an educator, an administrator, and a speaker.” Art is central to Cori’s work and features prominently in her curriculum development for children. Her art was featured in the 2012 opening parade for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, TX, a project that involved “seniors, children, and adults in all aspects” from a local Methodist community program. Ministry with Children and Spirituality, courses taught by Rev. Dr. Barbara Anne Keely (Professor Emerita, 1991–2015), were particularly formative for Cori’s future in education. “I remember she taught us to get on the floor and view the church nursery from a baby’s point of view,” Cori reflects. “I use this today over and over as I teach early childhood educators…. She introduced the idea of seeing oneself not as a separate body, mind, or spirit, but when one part of my being is suffering, to use the other parts to help lift that part.” More recently, Cori has been an active community member at Dallas Meditation Center, where she is known for her moving dharma talks that weave Buddhist themes into contemporary storytelling. In public schools and congregational settings, Cori has applied what she learned as a United student to the field of early childhood education, for which—nominator Rev. Jim Peck (’99) points out—she has become “one of the nation’s leading advocates.” When facing challenges in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cori leveraged her ingenuity and creative vision to support educators with online training resources. As a teacher and an administrator in spaces where lack of institutional funding and support are commonplace, Jim observes, “she uses her [United] education to work for justice and equity,” to “nurture relationships in the early childhood settings where she has served, with an expertise in working in settings in crisis to encourage recovery, healing, and new paths for serving the future.” In May 2026, Cori completed her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction at American College of Education, where she immediately enrolled to begin her EdD in Early Childhood Education. She serves as an executive director at the University of Kansas (KU) and anticipates returning to Dallas to live near her family at the end of the year while awaiting her next opportunity. We are delighted to celebrate Cori and her decades of faithful, innovative leadership in the field of early childhood education and art. About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.