Kwanzaa Community Church grew out of a declining, aging white congregation in north Minneapolis.  This new church was to provide ministry to a poor, urban, transient community that was increasingly populated by unchurched African Americans.  Kwanzaa's Hawthorne/Jordan community has one of the highest murder, addiction, and single-parent family rates in Minneapolis and the highest teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS infection rates in the entire nation.  Though the adversity and afflictions of its members and the neighborhood may seem grim to some, the ministry of Kwanzaa Community Church stands as a beacon of hope and transformation in the community. This is in large part due to the spiritual leadership of Co-Pastors Ralph and Alika Galloway.

The Reverend Alika P. Galloway is an organizing co-pastor of Kwanzaa Community Church, PCUSA in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rev. Galloway holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Master of Divinity degree in Womanist Theology and World Religions from Johnson C. Smith Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Rev. Galloway is a member of the African American Advisory Committee of the PCUSA General Assembly Office of Black Church Enhancement, a consultant for the Health Ministries Division and the recipient of numerous awards and honors including a Benjamin E. Mays Fellowship from the Fund for Theological Education. In 2007, Rev. Galloway served as the Regional Coordinator for the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative to equip local urban ministers for youth ministry in a changing world and has served as an adjunct faculty member at United Theological Seminary. She has participated in HIV/AIDS awareness training and prevention education for twenty years through the YWCA where she served as a Youth and Family Director for twelve years and through various trainings throughout the nation. She will be receiving a Doctorate in faith based ministry and HIV/AIDS reduction from Virginia Union Seminary in 2010.

The Rev. Dr. Ralph Galloway holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota in Sociology and a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Counseling.  He went on to earn his Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA with an emphasis in Community Organizing.    He has served as Executive Director of Hospitality House, Boys and Girls Clubs, Inc. in Minneapolis, as Associate Pastor of Zion Baptist Church also in Minneapolis, as a Community Organizer at the Urban Training Organization of Atlanta, Inc. and as the Pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church USA in Wilson, North Carolina.   

Together, they are the blessed parents of three children and five grandchildren.