Meet our Pastor
Pastor Daniel Swanson
Reverend Daniel Swanson was born and grew up in the Amazon rainforest and Andes mountain regions of Ecuador. The Amazon was a child’s paradise for discovery with all its diverse life forms. Sangay, seen from the windows of Daniel’s jungle home, is an active snow-capped volcano spewing smoke and lava. Daniel watched the earth being born. Later he explored portions of a volcanic island in the Galapagos—earth younger than his grandfather. Not only has he seen exquisite beauty of this earth, but he has witnessed the destruction by natural disasters intensified by human action that made the earth more fragile and disasters more devastating, the disappearance of the Amazon rainforest that he grew up in, and the violence of poverty, oppression, racism and war in South America, North America, Caribbean, India and the Holy Land.
Daniel has been married to his wife Kathy since 1986, and they have four adult children.
Daniel received his B.A degree from Bethel College in Minnesota. He studied medicine for two years at the Universidad Catolica in Cuenca, Ecuador. He studied religious history and archeology at the Institute for Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem. Daniel received his M.Div. degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Daniel’s work history includes chaplaincy at Bethesda Hospital Brain Injury and Rehabilitation units in St Paul, MN, therapist for Latin-x population at St Mary’s Mental Health Adult Clinic in Amsterdam, NY, and personal counselor at Woodstock boarding school in Mussoorie, India. He worked in earthquake relief, providing pastoral care with the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador. He served as pastor on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands during Hurricane Georges, at Hope Lutheran Church in New Castle, Delaware, and as mission developer for a new Latin-x congregation in Amsterdam, New York.
Daniel began his call as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in May 2019, less than a year before the pandemic began. Daniel is passionate about God’s call to all of us to forgiveness, reconciliation and healing for God’s beautiful, abundant creation.
Everywhere Daniel has lived, he is a guest. At the same time, the earth is his home.
Daniel Swanson
- Pastor
