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Rev, Ron Russell-Coons (d. 1990), “We Have AIDS.” MCCSF Archive, March 10, 1989.
This sermon is by a very particular minister preaching to a very specific audience. Reverend Ron Russell-Coons was born, raised, and ordained a Southern Baptist. When he came to accept his sexuality as a gay man, he changed his denomination, got ordained in the Metropolitan Community Church, and became pastor of MCC Seattle. But then he got AIDS and his ministry changed again. Too sick to fulfill his duties in Seattle, he moved to San Francisco, became volunteer clergy at MCCSF and devoted the rest of his life to AIDS activism in the church. For years he agitated MCC to become more responsive to its clergy with AIDS. And he worked with the nation’s largest ecumenical Christian organization, the National Council of Churches (NCC), to develop a progressive, compassionate response to AIDS.
The clip is from a service MCCSF held for members of the NCC’s Faith and Order Commission. The group was visiting the congregation to learn more about AIDS and Ron Russell-Coons used the sermon to teach them what a theology of AIDS looked like from the perspective of someone living with, and soon to die from, the disease. The evening was the basis for The Church with AIDS, a book edited and co-authored by the group of NCC visitors.
The Church with AIDS was published in 1990 by Westminster John Knox Press.
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Other sermons spoke very intimately to the social struggles the gay community faced as AIDS continued to devastate them year after year. The sermon became an opportunity for ministers to instruct the congregation on how to hold on to and with each other through the epidemic.
In this example, Rev. Jim Mitulski, the senior pastor, preaches to the congregation about the intensifying divide in the community between those who tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and those who tested negative.
Rev. Jim Mitulski, MCCSF pastor from 1986 – 2000, preaches on HIV status. MCCSF Archive, January 12, 1992.
In 1992, when the sermon was given, HIV testing had become more commonplace in the Castro. But there was still a lack of effective treatment. Sero-status – whether someone was HIV positive or negative – was shifting from a medical marker to a social one and the community was threatening to separate along those lines. Rev. Mitulski used this sermon to push back against that current, reminding listeners that God neither sends people disease as punishment nor shields them from disease as praise.
Rev. Jim Mitulski at the 1994 Candlelight Vigil sponsored by Mobilization Against AIDS. Photo by Rick Gerharter. Courtesy of Rick Gerharter.