Source: Star Tribune

http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/4203928.html

On November 12, 2003 the Star Tribune reported that "five Twin Cities women -- mothers, career women, friends and students of Zen Buddhism -- are taking vows to become Buddhist priests. Following the ceremony they will be student priests, and after about five more years of study they will be fully licensed Zen priests, able to lead their communities and recognized by the state as clergy who can perform weddings, funerals and other functions... All study with Tim Burkett, leader of the Minnesota Zen Center, near the eastern shore of Minneapolis' Lake Calhoun, the state's oldest Zen center... Zen Buddhism is one of the fastest-growing religions in the country. John Mayer of Religion Information Resources, a Twin Cities research ministry, estimates there are now more active Buddhists in Minnesota than Jews. In 1996, Mayer counted 23 Buddhist groups or temples in the Twin Cities; today there are 54. He estimates that about 50,000 people are active Buddhists in Minnesota, with another 50,000 who would ethnically be identified as Buddhists by their country of origin. There are about 42,000 Jews in Minnesota.