Minnesota Council of Churches
Background and Purpose
The Minnesota Council of Churches (Council) was founded in 1948 with the belief that collaboration among denominations was the best way to build common good in the world. The organization now is made up of 24 Christian denominations including Protestant, Orthodox, and Historically Black Churches, representing 1.2 million Minnesotans. All Council programming is designed to build collaboration among the denominations.
Joint programming of the Council and its represented churches includes refugee services, which resettles 350 refugees each year; Minnesota FoodShare, which through food drives and fundraising efforts of more than 2,000 congregations secures more than 47 million pounds of food for local food shelves; Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI), which provides anti-racism trainings to congregations and religious leaders; and the Muslim Christian Dialog project.
Current Request
The religious community has proclaimed its intent to end poverty by 2020 by signing on to A Common Foundation: Shared Principles for Work on Overcoming Poverty. The Minnesota Without Poverty Project is the Council's initiative to ensure that the Council's faith communities are working together to achieve that vision. Activities of this project will include:
- theological framing and understanding, by providing resources for the 2,000 member congregations to understand the church's teachings about ending poverty;
- public policy advocacy, mobilizing the members of the congregations to advocate for public policies that address poverty; and
- direct service and asset development, by engaging churches to develop programs that alleviate poverty.
Recent efforts have included supporting the Minnesota Benefit Bank, an internet-based application system that allows families to apply for twelve tax credit and public benefit programs with one application.