Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches

The Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches is a voluntary association of Christian churches organized to work together for the welfare of the community and to foster cooperation among the area's Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches. The council had its origins as the Hennepin County Sunday School Association (later known as the Minneapolis Council of Religious Education), which in 1927 merged with the Minneapolis Council of Churches to form the Minneapolis Church Federation. As an expression of its advisory and cooperative nature, as well as its interests beyond the Minneapolis city limits, the name was changed in 1951 to the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches.

True to its beginnings as the Sunday School Association, the Council had its earliest roots in the area of religious education. The organization's primary mission in these early years was the sponsoring of workshops and institutes for teachers of the city's Sunday schools. By the 1920s the group had organized weekday religious instruction on released time for children in the public schools of Minneapolis and its suburbs, an endeavor it was forced finally to abandon in 1968 after a series of Supreme Court decisions and waning interest in the community. The Council refocused its efforts on the promotion of new curricula developed to teach objectively about religion in the public schools.

The Council and its predecessor organizations were early activists in human rights and social justice, work that took on increasing emphasis and predominance in the middle and later decades of the century. Through the Church Women United, the Council founded the Circle F Club, a group that provides services and opportunities for socializing to individuals recovering from severe mental illness. The Chaplaincy Services division worked to provide chaplains and other religious services to individuals in prisons, hospitals, and nursing homes. The Council sponsored or participated in numerous groups or causes promoting racial equality and cooperation between different Christian denominations as well as between Christians and other faiths. Major activities in this area include Black Church Fund, the Minnesota Inter religious Committee on Jewish-Christian Relations, and the fair housing campaign of the early 1960s, as well as numerous other efforts. Other community work is accomplished through programs such as the Meals on Wheels Coordination Project, the Metro Paint-A-Thon, HandyWorks, Minnesota FoodShare, Congregations in Community, and Congregations Concerned for Children Child Advocacy Network.

In 1952 the Division of Indian Work was formed to help Native Americans in the greater Minneapolis area adjust to urban life by providing emergency food, clothing and housing, transportation, referral for legal assistance and medical care, as well as advice and spiritual counseling. Programs administered by the Division of Indian Work include Youth Leadership Development, Family Violence, Teen Indian Parents, and Horizons Unlimited.

Women's organizations have played a prominent role throughout the history of the Council. Known first simply as the Women's Department, then subsequently as the Minneapolis Council of Federated Church Women, the Minneapolis Council of Church Women, and the United Church Women of Greater Minneapolis, the organization has been known as the Church Women United since 1968. While formally a division within the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, the Church Women United have their own bylaws and articles of incorporation and are extremely active in their own right. They are responsible for the founding of the Circle F Club, and organize a number of the Council's regular events including the World Day of Prayer and May Fellowship Day.

While the organization employs a staff to take care of many administrative matters, the actual membership of the organization consists of approximately 700 individual churches, each of which contributes financially to the Council and encourages its congregation members to participate in the Council's activities. The Council works in close cooperation with a number of other related church councils in the area, often forming joint committees and co-sponsoring activities. The Twin Cities Metropolitan Church Commission was organized to coordinate between the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, the St. Paul Area Council of Churches, and the Minnesota Council of Churches.

From the guide to the Council records., 1905-2010., (Minnesota Historical Society)