Seventy years ago some Swedish Lutherans on the south side of Tucson formed a congregation, in the old Augustana Synod (which has since merged in to the LCA and then to the ELCA), on Bilby Road and almost Park Avenue. They called this church Bethany Lutheran.
By the mid-1970’s, most of the Swedes had moved away, and the neighborhood had become mostly Mexican-American. So they sold the property to the Lutheran Church in America (the LCA) and with the proceeds moved west to Cardinal and Valencia and formed Santa Cruz Lutheran Church.
San Juan Bautista, as it looks today.
Meanwhile, at the old Bethany building, a new pastor named Rich Miller came in, who spoke Spanish and had served congregations in the Caribbean. He had a counseling practice on the side and, through that, met a bunch of people of Afro-Cuban descent who had just come to the US. He restarted the church as San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church, or Eglesia Luterana de San Juan Bautista.
The church remained this way until the early 1980’s, when most of the Cuban immigrants moved to other parts of the US, and Pastor Miller started and outreach to the Mexican-America community that now is the majority of the area. He stayed there until the late 1980’s.
He was then followed by a retired missionary from Guatemala, Pastor Gary McClure. He served the congregation part-time for the next 18 years. He was followed by three more pastors who all had short terms, followed then by Pastor Mateo Chavez, a retired teacher from Yuma and member of the congregation. Pastor Chavez has now been at San Juan for several years fully ordained.
This April 30th San Juan will be celebrating its 70th anniversary as a ministry site (as two different congregations). They’ve weathered a lot, particularly the struggle with finding pastors who can speak Spanish, and know the culture. As a small congregation of people on hour wages. San Juan has not been self-sustaining for years, and relies heavily on the generosity of the ELCA, Grand Canyon Synod, and our fellow Tucson congregations.
Pastor Rich Miller (second from left) helping the musicians from San Juan at the super-youth event in 2017. Pastor Mateo Chavez is speaking, and his wife Anette is with the guitar second from the right.
Lord of Grace has had an off-again, on-again partnership with San Juan. I saw in an old directory that we rebuilt the underlayment on their roof in the early 2000’s. We also had a combined youth group event in 2018 down there, which was a lot of fun. Then there was the “super-youth” event here in 2018 that featured a musical group from San Juan.
When I was doing Open Space Church, we had a good partnership with San Juan. As a mission start, we relied on ELCA money to support us. But what we didn’t have in finances, we had in talent.
Michael Schultz painting Jesus and John the Baptism where the old windows used to be at San Juan Bautista
In 2015 we held our second live graffiti art show at San Juan: WET PAINT 2. Open Space’s own Michael Schultz painted a big mural on their education building with the Virgin of Guadalupe, Jesus, and the Luther Rose. We also brought in other local artists to make an event out of it. The mural is still there, though it could use a touch-up because of the fading. It faces due west.
The Holy Spirit by Tucson artist SES ONE
Then again in 2019 Open Space came back to host a graffiti contest, and paint the outside front of the sanctuary. The windows that once showed light into the front were covered up with plywood decades ago, and were painted like the rest of the building. Instead, Michael Schultz painted this Jesus with John the Baptist (above) in stained-glass-style, but with all spray paint. Numerous other artists competed, and the winner, SES ONE, with this Holy Spirit Dove, still sits in the San Juan sanctuary.
One thing that has been a frustration of many of us in the Grand Canyon Synod is how Tucson, which is 40% Mexican-American, has only one Spanish-speaking church, and . We need to do better at our evangelism, and break out of being a denomination of primarily Midwestern transplants (says Midwestern Transplant). There aren’t easy solutions, but one thing we can do is help support the congregation we do have.
The Lord of Grace and San Juan youth groups in 2016 in front of the main mural on the education building.
Which brings me to my shameless plug for volunteers to help me repaint the San Juan fellowship hall. The room has been rebuilt and repainted several times, and has some marks of wear, as any heavily-trafficked space does. I’ll be going down April 10th to prep the walls and tape, and then paint on April 12 and 13. I could use help to make it all go faster. It’s not a huge room, but it does take time and effort to get things done with detail. Sign-up sheets are in the narthex, and you can pick the day you can come. I hope to see you there.
Pastor Lars