Northeast Regional Corrections Center Chaplaincy

Northeast Regional Corrections Center partnership with NE MN Synod ELCA centers on restorative justice & re-entry ministry

In 2021, CHUM (Churches United in Ministry) reached out to partner with the Northeast Minnesota Synod office to fill an open chaplaincy position in the Northeast Regional Corrections Center (NERCC) — a minimum to medium security institution providing 144 beds for adult males operated by Arrowhead Regional Corrections. NERCC is a joint powers agency operated by Carlton, Cook, Koochiching, Lake, and St. Louis Counties in northeastern Minnesota. In February 2022, the agency hired the first rostered chaplain to NERCC Rev. Victor St. George, a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA, to lead the ministry and expand the ministry to include sacraments, and explore developing a soft re-entry program that includes a worshiping community in the City of Duluth.

Pastor St George introduces the new ministry partnership

Pastor St. George is trained to utilize trauma informed care and has worked with people in recovery. He is a member of Men As Peacemakers and a proud citizen and elder of the Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He has experience with restorative justice practices and a willingness to continue to grow in this area. Pastor St. George has a passion for meeting Christ in the margins. When he answered God’s invitation to serve Christ’s church as a pastor, he heard God inviting him to serve in prison ministries. After 24 years in ministry, Pastor St. George is serving Christ’s church in ministry that he had first heard God invite him into!

Financial Support is need for this budding ministry

  • $72,500 is the total financial support needed for Victor’s work in this ministry.
  • $6000 would financially support his work in this ministry for 1 month
  • $1500 would financially support his work in this ministry for one week
  • $200 would financially support his work in this ministry for Rev Victor for 1 day

Supporting this ministry supports those reentering our communities after serving their sentences at NERCC, as well as their families and friends, can hear the liberating, life changing message of Christ’s love for them and the world.

grounded in god’s work

The book of John says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Let us proclaim through word and deed, through mission and ministry, through abundant support of others, through inclusive welcome, through radical love and through story all that God had done in presence of us, Christ’s disciples, so that all may believe and through that believing have abundant life in Christ’s name.