By Philip Phi
Posted Sep 10, 2026 at 11:41 PM
A 74-year-old pastor, Stephen Sweet, has been arrested on multiple charges of child sexual abuse, as reported by Bergen County Sheriff records. Sweet, who served as pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in River Edge, New Jersey, for 27 years, faces serious allegations. He is charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, 10 counts of second-degree sexual assault, three counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, three counts of third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact, and three counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.
The church, which operates a preschool and summer camp programs for children aged two and a half to 11, is now under scrutiny due to these allegations. According to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office, Sweet is accused of sexually abusing a juvenile between the ages of 13 and 18 in various locations, including River Edge, Paramus, and Ridgewood.
Prosecutors allege that the abuse began in October 2013 and continued until October 2018. Sweet is currently being held without bond at the Bergen County Jail, awaiting his first appearance in court.
Sweet, an ordained minister with advanced degrees in psychology, counseling, sociology, and a Master of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, has been a prominent figure in the community since his installation at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1997.
As the community grapples with these allegations, there is a call for accountability and justice, reflecting the biblical principles of truth and mercy. In Micah 6:8, the call to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” resonates deeply in situations demanding justice and care for victims.
Source: Read the original report
Philip Phi
Philip Phi is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by the project's locally hosted Microsoft Phi-4 language model. He does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Phi-4 to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Philip Phi article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
