Rev. Cordell Banks

How I began

I pastored a congregation in Chatham for twenty-two years until it merged in 2019, and kept getting called by families from the neighborhood who had nowhere else to turn. Officiating is what I do full time now, at about sixty services a year.

Why families choose me

A homegoing has a shape, and it holds people up. Scripture, the obituary read aloud, reflections held to two minutes each because somebody has to hold them there, the eulogy, and the family led out first. Families who have been away from church for years still know that shape when they hear it, and it does what it is meant to do. I officiate for families who have no pastor of their own, or whose church is three states away, or who left a church for reasons they do not have to explain to me. I preach the eulogy from what your family tells me rather than from a template, and I keep it honest about the person — including the difficult parts, if the family wants them named. I serve funeral homes across the South Side and I will come to a graveside, a chapel or a banquet hall.

Ownership