General Synod opening preacher is ready for the church to ‘go deep or go home’

The Rev. Marilyn Pagán-Banks serves many roles in her hometown city of Chicago.

She pastors at San Lucas United Church of Christ, serves as the executive director of the organization A Just Harvest to combat hunger in the city, teaches seminary classes, and was recently elected as a member of the Chicago Police District Council.

A newly added role for her will be to offer the message at the opening worship of this summer’s General Synod 35 on July 11. Registration for General Synod is open now.

But Pagán-Banks describes herself as having one vocation that happens to be served out of various settings.

“Everything I do is connected in some way to engaging conversation around liberating oppressed people or building economic power,” she said. “The only reason I’m able to kind of hold it all together is because it’s all connected.”

She makes many of these connections through her work with San Lucas UCC, where on two Sundays each month, the “tiny but mighty” congregation meets for pan y liberación. The worship gathers around a table with breakfast, and Pagán-Banks leads a form of Lectio Divina, creating space for reflection, prayer, and sharing joys and concerns. Everyone participates, including the children, she said.  

It has developed into a place “to build each other up so we can be the church outside of here,” given that most people in the congregation work in some form of ministry or service in the community, she said.

There are often more people in the church on weekdays to offer energy bill assistance and a hot meal program in collaboration with other local UCC churches. But on Sundays, there is space to bolster depth in these communities.

“The intent is that Jesus gathered with folks to build up relationships and build up the wherewithal to go out and do the work. Now is a time to be building deep, deep relationships,” Pagán-Banks said. “And I’m always very clear: Jesus didn’t come to start a church. He was always about learning and engaging, and he would go to the temple and then come back out.”

This is interconnected with the work she oversees at A Just Harvest, she said, as both spaces work to build community resources and meet needs. A Just Harvest offers a community kitchen for whoever will come with no proof of need required.

“Some people come for food, and some people come to socialize and know they still exist in the world,” she said. “At Just Harvest we are working to put ourselves out of business by meeting needs in the community.”

‘The stories of the people’

Pagán-Banks, who describes herself as a queer, womanist minister and healer, is not new to the General Synod stage. She has attended every Synod since 1997 and has offered stories during Synod worship in the past. This will be her first time preaching – which, she said, is both exciting and terrifying.

She has tattooed on her throat a blue Om symbol, which she chose because she has felt her words have been a little stuck from coming out in recent years.  

“This invitation to preach is reminding me that I do have something to say, that I do have the stories of the people in my heart, and it’s time for me to get it out,” she said.

“Rev. Marilyn Pagán-Banks is a leader who has served the UCC and the community in Chicago for many years,” said UCC General Minister and President the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson. “Her witness in the UCC is ecumenical and global in scope, while also clear in serving at the grassroots. Her voice comes to us from the Latina community and will be instructive for us as a prophetic witness for today.”

When Pagán-Banks considers her many General Synod memories, she describes how she has appreciated some of the “fighting and debates where people’s hearts show up” and also when ugliness comes up through these, because it creates space to address what could otherwise stay hidden.

“I love it when we will disturb or interrupt ‘business as usual’ to take care of one another,” she said. “I think we’ve been good about that.”

‘Bringing the voice that isn’t often at the table‘

Pagán-Banks has served in various roles of the denomination, with her very first entry onto a UCC board coming during her time as a student minister in Chicago in 1996.

When denominational meetings were held in Chicago at the time, she met the Rev. Art Cribbs, who was serving as the executive director of what was then called the UCC Office of Communications. He encouraged her to serve on the board, noting the importance of her voice as someone under 30 and Latina. She continued to fill roles within various National leadership bodies following this, including co-chairing the former Local Church Ministries Board, serving on search committees for former General Ministers and Presidents, and serving in leadership with Colectivo de UCC Latinx Ministries.

“I just loved the work. I love the learning. I love being able to bring the voice that isn’t often at the table to the table,” she said, adding that it was funny how she got integrated into National Ministries quicker than local ones.

‘No time to be playing church’

As she prepares to preach at General Synod with the theme “Into the Deep,” Pagán-Banks is contemplating the need to go beyond being superficial or shallow in relationships to be able to embody Jesus’ way.

“I’ve been saying this for a long time, but especially now: there’s just no time for us to be playing church. We need to go deep or go home. There’s just too much at stake for us to stay on the edge of things, getting our toes wet, staying safe,” she said. “Being a Christian church does not mean that you’re deep in relationship and understanding Jesus’ movement. Movements can last because they know how to take risks and go deeper than we’ve gone before.”

She also offered a little teaser that she has a fun idea to introduce at Synod worship — but people will have to attend Synod to find out more.

‘We’re not carrying all this alone’

Currently, Pagán-Banks is finding hope in her work teaching a course at McCormick Theological Seminary as part of the field studies program. There, she facilitates reflection in small groups.

“I might be facilitator, but we operate in circles. We’re sharing with each other. We’re lamenting. We’re trying to figure out what to do in these times, and how to care for our people. We’re crying about what the hell is going on and how this is affecting our communities – especially the immigrant community right now, and children,” she said. “Even though it can feel heavy, it’s also just a space where there’s this reminder that we’re not carrying all this alone.”

She also finds hope in her 12 grandbabies, who encourage her every day “to keep up the fight.”

It is because of her experiences of centering relationships that Pagán-Banks is able to describe the necessity of building authentic relationships for doing the work of the church in the world.

“I think we need to model in our church being a place that is – not safe, because we’ve overused that word – but to be a space where you can take courage, a space where you know if you break down and lament, the people will be there with you. That we embody justice and kindness and love, and go out in the world and hold folks accountable. This is how we can build the world we want,” she said.

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