Vern Barnet, D.Min., became minister emeritus of CRES (Center for Religious Experience and Study), a Kansas City community resource for exploring spirituality in all faiths, in 2004. He founded CRES in 1982 and became its minister-in-residence in 1985 with “community networking” responsibilities. He now focuses on writing, teaching, and consulting.
Rev. Barnet is known to many Kansas Citians through the religion column published Wednesdays in The Kansas City Star. Founder of The Kansas City Interfaith Council and its convener through 2003, he continues now as convener emeritus. He has been active in many professional and civic organizations. His articles, poems, and reviews appear in many journals.
Barnet has taught religion courses in numerous colleges and seminaries. In 2007 he served on the international faculty of the pilot “Interfaith Academies” partnered by Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, Religions for Peace-USA, the Saint Paul School of Theology, and the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council. For six years he served on the editorial board of Unity Magazine as its only non-Unity ministerial member.