Our Co-Pastor

The Rev. Marilynn Sasportas Robinson, M.P.H., grew up in The Bronx, New York. A brilliant young girl who read avidly - courtesy of the public library Bookmobile which came into her public housing complex - she excelled scholastically. Upon graduation from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, she left New York to receive her Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Harvard-Radcliffe College, and her Master of Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health, where she was awarded the coveted E. Richard Weinermen Award honoring the graduate school's most outstanding student. She has had an exemplary career in Hospital Administration working with hospital associations, primary care practices, and academic health centers. Following 10 years as a senior administrator at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, she came to Memphis and to Saint Francis Hospital, where she is currently Senior Vice President, responsible for marketing, governmental affairs, and the hospital's external communications. At Saint Francis, her unique administrative gifts are evident throughout her leadership roles; from the cultural sensitivity she brings to the Executive Staff, through her supervision of Pastoral Services, to her well-loved, considerate, managerial relationship with the hospital's employees.

Having accepted her Call to Preach in 1991, Rev. Marilynn is an ordained Elder in our denomination, selflessly serving The Saint as one of only three individuals in the entire denomination who have received an Episcopal Appointment to the position of Co-Pastor. Her multiple administrative, coordinating and counseling responsibilities at The Saint are highlighted by her role as founder and inspirational leader of our exceptional women's fellowship - Sisters. The Sisters’ annual retreat draws over 500 women to an extraordinary weekend of spiritual growth, quiet reflection, personal empowerment and Holy Spirit anointing. In her ministerial capacity, she also provides critical, inspirational, and knowledgeable leadership to St. Andrew's new members' discipleship programs and to our Adam and Eve married couples' fellowship. Rev. Marilynn serves on multiple Boards, including American Heart Association, West Tennessee, Lifeblood Foundation, Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce Governmental Affairs Review Committee, The Works, Inc., and as Chair of the Board of The Circles of Success Learning Academy. An extraordinary African-American woman, her exemplary roles in the church, corporate world, and community were acknowledged by the private sector of the City of Memphis as she was invited to become one of the select Alumni of Leadership Memphis.

Our First Daughters

Pastor and Rev. Marilynn have known each other for 35 years, having met during their undergraduate years at Harvard. It was not exactly “love at first sight!” After a life-changing period in their early relationship, which included a failed first engagement over Pastor’s Call to Preach, a miraculously renewed friendship, and continued spiritual growth for them both, they became engaged again in 1979, and were married 8 weeks later. Their marriage has been rich, varied, and blessed; a true partnership in spirit, family, focus, and ministry. Central to the joy they share together, are their identical twin daughters, Maisha Tamar and Nuriya Desta. Born in 1981 during the couple’s Boston years, our Pastors chose their given names to reflect the “twin” attributes of Jesus, noted in John 1:4 – “Life” (Swahili, maisha) and “Light” (Amharic, nuriya). Their respective Hebrew and Amharic (Ethiopian) middle names have proven to reflect their “principled” and “joyful” personalities. Educated in the public schools of Nashville and Memphis, both are now alumnae of Princeton University; having both been named by the President, Dean and faculty as co-recipients of the University’s Spirit of Princeton Award, and the prestigious Class of 2002 Frederick Douglas Service Award. In May of 2007 both received medical degrees at Tufts University School of Medicine, in Boston. Having recently spent nine months among the women in South Africa and Ghana, studying HIV microbicides and delivering 100 babies, Nuriya is pursuing a career in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Maisha followed through with her interest in the benign brain tumor her mother had removed 10 years ago, distinguishing herself as a medical student in the specialty she is now pursuing, Neurology.