Rev. Jerry Anderson Oral History

The Reverend Jerry Anderson was born and raised in the United Pentecostal Church in coal country Illinois and briefly attended a Pentecostal seminary in Texas.  He discovered the Episcopal Church in 1962 while attending Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.

This was followed by three years at General Theological School in New York City, where he graduated in 1968. He then served as  Curate and the Assistant Rector at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church in Wilmette, Illinois, from 1968 until 1973.   From 1973 til 1976 he completed thirteen units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago.  

He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1976 to live with his partner;  they remained together for thirteen years.  He worked in Senator Adlai Stevenson’s office from 1976 to 1979 when he was offered an assistant rector position at St. Patrick’s Church.  In 1981, he came out to the church, and after discussion was supported by the majority of the parish and Bishop Wilson.  In spite of that support, the Virginia Theological Seminary, which at that time had a very oppressive policy against gays, banned him from supervising its students in Field Education, which created a controversy.

In 1983, his first friend died of AIDS and more of his time was spent caring for AIDS victims.  In 1986 he inspired the founding of the Episcopal Caring Response to AIDS in the Diocese of Washington and was its chaplain until 1969.  During these years he pushed for an AIDS response at The General Convention of The Episcopal Church, participated in Interfaith AIDS Retreats, helped organize Barbara Bush’s 1989 visit to Grandma’s House, and started an HIV support group. 

In 1969, he moved to Miami and created the Episcopal AIDS Ministry out of Trinity Cathedral, where he worked until 2001.  He then moved to the Diocese of Los Angeles where he was priest in charge of St. Paul's Church in Pomona for thirteen months and then became Director of Pastoral Care at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles until he retired in 2016.  

Biography Date: November 28, 2025