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Seattle church opens its doors non-religious groups

All Saints Church wants their facility to be a place where they can help people, so they are providing office space to three non-profits.
All Saints Church in Seattle is currently providing office space to three non-profits devoted to fighting human trafficking.

SEATTLE -- With Easter coming this Sunday churches across Western Washington will be opening their doors to thousands of parishioners. But one Seattle church has invited more than just the faithful to do their work inside the church building.

All Saints Church in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood wants their facility to be a place where they can help people, even those who don't share their faith.

Pastor Bill Berger says the church recently allowed some non-profit groups to work out of their building.

"It should be the church's mission to provide social lift to a community and we believe one of the ways that we're going to do that is to use our facility as a collaborative workspace," said Berger.

The groups do not have religious ties. The church is currently providing office space for three non-profit organizations that fight human trafficking.

Those groups all focus on the issue in different ways. They say being under one roof has helped them reach more people.

Seattle Against Slavery Executive Director Robert Beiser says it has been a good partnership.

"What we see is faith communities. Whether it's Christian, Muslim or Jewish, they have a group of people who have a certain ethic and who have a drive to work together to make the community better," said Beiser.

Beiser says he hopes other churches will reach out and help groups like theirs.

"Our work fighting human trafficking has benefited from that but there are a lot of other folks doing good work that could benefit from faith organizations putting themselves out there to help the community," said Beiser.

The church is doing some minor renovations so they can accommodate more groups.

"I think if what it teaches people in church communities is don't limit it to just saying, 'If its church connected, that's the only thing we can be part of,'" said Berger. "There's plenty of organizations in the city that are doing incredible work."

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