Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries

CONTACT:

474 Centre Street
Newton, MA 02458
(617) 244-3650
www.coopmet.org

Alexander Levering Kern, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

In these days of religious strife and turmoil, one counter-example, now in a key position, is this modest program launched in 1965 during a similarly torn period. CMM is an interfaith coalition of 70 congregations from 19 greater Boston communities, dedicated to “bring together people from across economic, religious, racial, and ethnic boundaries, so that in partnership we can work more effectively for a just society.”

One of the most critical such boundaries is that between urban and suburban communities and people. CMM’s “Urban-Suburban Dinner & Dialogue Meetings” were created to provide occasions where substantive communications might be born, leading to fruitful action programs ... and they have. Nine urban-suburban congregation “partnerships” have been forged, and six more are in the works, around a rich variety of community service initiatives to support low-income, at-risk, youth and families.

CMM aims at long-term relationships, to provide a fertile and well-prepared ground where new and fruitful social and religious experiences might grow, changing the landscape and perhaps even affecting our local cultural climate.

(2000: HUMAN SERVICES: Well-Being)