The Jay Phillips Center was established in 1996 by bringing together St. John’s University’s Jay Phillips Chair in Jewish Studies, founded in 1969, and the University of St. Thomas’ Center for Jewish-Christian Learning, founded in 1985. From 1996 until 2009, the center was known as the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning. In the last several years, the center has expanded the scope of its interfaith work, and the new name reflects its expanded mission.
By promoting interfaith learning and friendship, the center is carrying out a mandate of Vatican Council II (1962-1965) and subsequent official Roman Catholic teaching, thereby supporting the Catholic identity of its host universities. The Vatican II document Nostra Aetate (from its opening Latin words meaning “In our time”), also known as “The Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” calls upon Catholics to engage in “dialogue and collaboration with followers of other religions.” It claims that the Church is “ever aware of its duty to foster unity and charity among individuals, and even among nations,” and it challenges Christians to “acknowledge, preserve, and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians” while at the same time “witnessing to their own faith and way of life.”
The Jay Phillips Center carries out its mission by sponsoring a host of interfaith activities, including courses and programs for college and high-school students, workshops for clergy and religious educators, and art exhibits and lectures for the general public. The events are held at the two sponsoring universities and other schools, as well as at churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship.
New funding will go toward the endowment of the Jay Phillips Center. This support will strengthen the operations of the center and will enable it to extend its outreach in keeping with its newly expanded mission. Among the new ventures that an increased endowment will support are proposed interfaith leadership projects for high-school and college students from various faith communities of Minnesota, and a proposed program for cultivating interfaith learning and friendship though the arts.