In September, 2020 the Minnesota Council of Church’s Board voted unanimously to launch a multi-year effort at truth telling, education and repair with Indigenous and African American communities. The goals include building relationships, creating an accurate, common narrative of our history, and bringing about systemic change.
Healing Minnesota Stories is a Council initiative. This blog will explore differing aspects of reparations work, past and present, along with lessons learned. Below find our previous blogs.
April 6, 2023: One church’s journey towards making reparations, Part 2: Widening the lens on what reparations means
April 4, 2023: One church’s journey towards making reparations, Part 1: Our Saviour’s Lutheran started by building it into its annual budget
Jan. 9, 2023: Practical ‘Land Back’ opportunity
Dec. 14, 2022: Religion of Whiteness, Part III: Stories and reflections from Christians of Color
Dec. 13, 2022: Religion of Whiteness, Part II: What is it?
Dec. 12, 2022: Religion of Whiteness, Part I: What survey data says about White Christians’ attitudes about race and privilege
May 21, 2022: Reparations: Royalties for black spirituals, historic $31.5B settlement in Canada, and more
April 4, 2022: City of Saint Paul reparations efforts move forward, community meetings set
Dec. 14, 2021: Moral reckoning: A Presbyterian Church tests model to surrender wealth to Afro American, Indigenous communities
Dec. 13, 2021: Restorative Actions and the power of a single conversation
Nov. 4, 2021: Good words will not give me back my children: Truth telling and historical recovery as the foundations for racial justice
Sept. 30, 2021: Momentum is building for truth telling and healing around the cultural genocide that took place in Indian Boarding Schools and the trauma that continues today
July 12, 2021: Rev. Pamela Ngunjiri will help lead the Minnesota Council of Churches’ truth telling and reparations work
April 6, 2021: Jesuits pledge $100 million to atone for slave labor and sales
March 14, 2021: One church’s path towards reparations: Donating its property tax equivalent to Black- and Indigenous-led organizations.
Feb. 18, 2021: Holocaust survivors continue to receive German reparations payments to this day
Feb. 3, 2021: Indigenous organization seeks church partners for truth telling, healing, around Indian boarding school trauma
Jan. 15, 2021: Reparations start with letting go of our myths
Jan. 11, 2021: Minneapolis announces Truth and Reconciliation Working Group
Jan. 5, 2021: U.S. reparations efforts: Japanese internment camps during WW II and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988
Dec. 13, 2020: Federal government to return (some) stolen lands to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
Oct. 20, 2020: MN Council of Churches makes anti-racism core to its work, launches multi-year truth and reparations effort.
Sept. 26, 2020: MN Council of Churches to launch community process for truth telling, repair around the historic harms done to Native American, African American communities
July 21, 2020: Environmental groups are embracing racial justice as central to their work
Dec. 31, 2018: A People’s Hearing on Minnesota Reparations Legislation, Friday, Jan. 4
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