Nguzo Saba

....Faithful followers of God's vision for the city

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About Kwanzaa - What We Believe

WHY IS OUR CHURCH CALLED “KWANZAA?”

Kwanzaa Community Church, PCUSA, is a Christian church and is the first and only African American Presbyterian congregation in the state of Minnesota. While intentionally celebrating African American culture, Kwanzaa demonstrates unconditional love and is open to all. Kwanzaa takes its name from an annual seven-day African American holiday that is celebrated nationally in communities at the end of December. The Nguzo Saba, or the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, are held up by both East and West African cultures, intentionally carried forward to strengthen families of African descent in America.

Since its inception, Kwanzaa’s unique mission has been to simultaneously build a worshipping community and to extend the Kingdom of God into that community. Because the Seven Principles are Biblically-based and have clear synergy with Kwanzaa’s mission, focusing on and upholding the Principles is ideal. The church works toward community, justice, social change and empowerment for the families of our area and utilizes the Principles as guideposts and tools for evaluation of our community engagement ministry.

The Nguzo Sabo (Seven Principles of Kwanzaa)

Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Credit: Official Kwanzaa Website