Our Narrative

AGC’s earliest roots grew out of the gay and lesbian student movement in the Twin Cities and St. Cloud in the early 1970s (St. Cloud University and at Gay House in Minneapolis). The groups merged in 1974 and formed Metropolitan Community Church of the Twin Cities. They planned a series of religious services taking place on Sunday afternoons. The church grew quickly and was officially chartered by our denomination (the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches) in July 1976.

The founding generation of AGC rooted the congregation in the LGBTQ justice movement. In 1977, the church was featured as a part of the WCCO-TV special “Fair Game Faggot”, causing a neighborhood backlash, with vandals spray-painting our host church (a Quaker Meetinghouse). Despite this set-back, growth continued and a separate congregation began a church in St. Paul in 1978. The onset of HIV/AIDS brought the two congregations together as “All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church,” in a statement of unity within the LGBTQ community and solidarity with the larger community.

AGC MCC became a cohesive gay, lesbian and transgendered church community, addressing the AIDS crisis and generating visibility for the LGBTQ community in Minneapolis and St. Paul which led to explosive growth by the mid-1980s. In 1986, the congregation moved to our current building (31st and Park), and attendance more than tripled. By the 2000s, the church had expanded to other areas of social justice, including the fight for same-sex marriage. While AGC celebrated marriage for same-sex couples in the 1970s, the public discussion on marriage rights for LGBTQ people took decades to catch up. We hosted a “Renewal of Vows” in February 2004 that was extensively covered by all four major television stations. Sixty-five gay and lesbian couples renewed their vows as a statement of our commitment to gay marriage. AGC was a leader among faith groups and churches that opposed anti-marriage legislation and constitutional amendments limiting LGBTQ rights. We were among the first churches celebrate the passage of marriage equality in Minnesota in August 2013.

We continue to draw on people from diverse faith backgrounds, both in and out of the gay, lesbian and transgendered community. We pride ourselves on being a role model for all faith communities and churches as they address today’s issues of social justice and discrimination. Rooted in the LGBTQ equality struggle, we join our faith partners in co-creating a reconciled Minnesota where all are free from hate and all have access to the needs, support, and opportunities necessary to live freely and wholly. We are a people called by God to bring peace to the land.