The following PDFs contain lists of anti-racism resources, with clickable links to many items. The lists are by no means complete, but are offered as a starting point for anti-racism education and action.

Black-Owned Businesses
Reading List for Adults
Reading List for Children and Youth
Podcasts, Documentaries and Films
Talking with Children
Racism and the Church
Specialized Resources

"Where Do We Go From Here"
The Conference's webinar series to expand racial justice awareness launched June 30, 2020 with the Rev. Traci Blackmon, Associate General Minister of the United Church of Christ, talking on "Where Do We Go From Here? Lessons from Ferguson & Beyond." Watch and listen to the amazing conversation here.

We are an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ.

Our original Open and Affirming Statement was adopted by the congregation in 1998. Our updated ONA Statement was adopted by the congregation on January 29, 2023:

"We, the congregation of St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, declare ourselves to be an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ.

“We welcome all persons into the life of this church as full partners in ministry: our worship, sacraments, work, and service.

“We lament the Christian Church’s long history of discrimination and its many abuses. The Church’s persecution of those who identify as LGBTQ+ often causes isolation, fear, harm, and even death.

“We embrace Jesus’ example to proclaim release to the captives, to set at liberty the oppressed (Luke 4:18), and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31).

(Read the entire ONA statement on our Values page.)

SAPUCC is a Sanctuary Supporting Congregation.

We work co-operatively with several other churches and share needs, tasks, ideas and resources. There are 3 coalitions in the metro area: East St Paul, South Minneapolis, and our coalition in the University Area. We all work under the umbrella of ISAIAH, which is a faith-based organization promoting social justice.

As defined by ISAIAH, "Sanctuary and Supporting Congregations not only provide refuge and a safe haven to families fighting deportation, they also fight for full immigrant justice. This includes fighting and advocating for policies and legislation that embraces a sanctuary state; drivers licenses for all Minnesotans, regardless of status; immigrant legal defense funds, know your rights and rapid response trainings; and getting federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of Minnesota."

To learn more about our immigration action, click here.

SAPUCC is proud to partner with Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul.

Interfaith Action's mission is "to harness the power of thousands of motivated volunteers from diverse faith and spiritual communities to relieve the effects of poverty and address its root causes."

SAPUCC is one of their "anchor congregations." In addition to annual financial support, we:

Collect back-to-school supplies for their annual "School Tools" donation drive for children and youth from low-income families

Support the Department of Indian Work food shelf with donations year-round

Pastor Victoria participates in Interfaith Action's Clergy-Civic Leader round-table breakfasts

Want to learn more about Interfaith Action's positive impact on people's lives? Click here to watch their "Bringing Faith to Life" program.

By Craig Freeman, member of SAPUCC since 2012

In December 2023, Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative (my employer) opened Bimosedaa (bee-moh-SAY-dah), 48 homes of deeply affordable, supportive housing in downtown Minneapolis.

Bimosedaa, an Ojibwe word meaning “Let Us Walk Together,” is a partnership with the Red Lake Nation and the organization Avivo, which provides onsite services in the building. A minimum of 33, and generally all 48 residents of Bimosedaa will be Native Americans.

The services Avivo provides at Bimosedaa are done in a culturally relevant manner and are based on a “housing first” model. This means even if someone has untreated mental health or ongoing chemical dependency issues, we first house individuals and then invite them to participate in intensive harm reduction services to work on the issues they face. Accordingly, most of the initial residents of Bimosedaa moved directly from encampments into the building.

Bimosedaa is located in a historic building at 4th Street and Hennepin. It was clear prior to construction there would be a lot of issues to deal with during the remodel. What wasn’t anticipated, however, was that the building’s façade was being held up purely by gravity. This, along with other issues, caused the cost of the project to balloon, and while Beacon’s public funders have been very generous is closing the cost gap, there is still a gap remaining. Some of that gap will be closed by a matching grant from the Otto Bremer Trust, and this is where SAPUCC comes into the picture.

The Otto Bremer Trust has pledged $100,000 if that amount is matched by other donors. Meanwhile, we at SAPUCC set aside $10,000 of pandemic era ERC funds to donate for Native reparations. Over the last couple months, the Acknowledgement to Action Ministry Team has been discussing where to direct these funds and determined that $5,000 should be donated to Beacon for Bimosedaa. This amount will then be matched by the Trust and double our impact to $10,000! This plan was presented to Council at the April 2024 meeting and unanimously approved.

I was recently at Bimosedaa speaking with residents, and I could not be happier we are using some of our money in this manner. The building is truly a source of hope for its residents and will be for decades to come.