ECC Holy Synod 2026 – Keynotes

ECC Holy Synod 2026 Featured Voices

Minister JaNaé Bates Imari is the Co-Executive Director for Faith in Minnesota and ISAIAH – multi-racial, multi-faith, state-wide vehicles for people and communities of faith, minority owned businesses, childcare centers, manufactured home parks and farming communities. Both ISAIAH and FiMN are dedicated to building a multiracial democracy by moving collectively and powerfully for racial and economic equity in the state of Minnesota. JaNaé and her organizations have most recently been recognized for the frontline organizing work during Operation Metro Surge and the Day of Truth and Freedom in the Twin Cities. Additionally, they were pivotal in the mass action Palm Sunday events of 2026 across the country and in the Twin Cities. 

JaNaé is the lead organizer and founder of the Black Clergy Power Table and the statewide Black Church Power Project. JaNaé specializes in integrating grassroots community organizing and narrative strategy in both Minnesota and across the U.S. JaNaé is a womanist theologian and Fulbright scholar. She has over two decades of experience in ministry, social justice, and communications. She additionally serves as an auxiliary minister at Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood.

The Rev. Dr. Blair Pogue has served as the Canon for Innovation for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota since January 2021. In that capacity she oversees learning communities for Episcopalians wanting to deepen their faith and learn how to connect with spiritually curious neighbors. She was the rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul for 16 ½ years, and before that served suburban and rural churches in Virginia with a focus on Christian formation.

A desire to understand God’s missional nature as well as the changing nature of church leadership led her to undertake a Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Leadership and Mission at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.

Blair grew up in a secular family in Southern California and is interested in helping those inside and outside the church participate in God’s life more fully by developing a biblical imagination, engaging in intentional spiritual practices including prayer, simplicity, discernment, hospitality, generosity, gratitude, and reconciliation, and embracing multiple forms of Christian community. Before completing a Master of Divinity degree at Yale Divinity School in 2000, she was a doctoral candidate in American history at the College of William and Mary.

Rev. Tyler Sit is the founding pastor of New City Church, a church in Minneapolis that is led mostly by queer people of color. New City became the first ‘built from scratch’ church plant to charter in Minnesota United Methodism in decades. And in 2022, New City launched its second branch, Northeast United Methodist Church. Sit is a second-generation Chinese American, and he focuses his racial justice work into Intersect, a church planting network that he co-founded during the pandemic.

Sit has been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Minnesota Public Radio, and more. He received a BS in Communication Studies from Boston University and an M.Div. from Candler School of Theology, Emory University.