Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco

Pastors and Staff
Welcoming You to MCC San Francisco

We invite you to meet the dedicated Pastors and Staff below, who serve as some of the many ministers at MCCSF. For contact information, please visit our Contact List.

Rev. Lea Brown, Senior Pastor

Rev. Lea D. Brown began serving as the senior pastor of MCC San Francisco in March 2008, after two years as the senior pastor of Wichita Falls MCC in Texas. Before that she was the acting executive director of the Metropolitan Community Foundation in San Francisco. In addition to leading the foundation, Rev. Brown served as volunteer clergy at MCCSF since her ordination there in 1996. During that time she preached, led retreats, served as the pastor of spiritual development, and taught many classes and programs on spiritual growth, and on the intersections of gender, sexuality and spirituality, and social justice.

Throughout the 1990s Rev. Brown was a staff member at Spectrum, Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. As the program director there, she developed and coordinated an extensive Speakers Bureau and numerous community programs for GLBT youth, young adults, seniors and families. During her years in seminary, Brown served as a Chaplain Candidate (2nd Lt.) in the U.S. Army from 1988 to 1989.

Rev. Brown received her education from Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma; Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California; and Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. She is currently in a long-distance Doctor of Ministry program at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.

Rev. Jeff Bert, Associate Pastor

Jeff grew up in Nebraska and attended Indiana University, earning a B.S. in Finance. He worked for a while in the corporate world before pursuing ordination for the priesthood through studies and varied service for several years in the Catholic Church. Deciding to come out as a gay man, he left that path and became a licensed sports massage therapist. He also served as director of volunteers at a large homeless shelter in Tampa, Florida.

While living in Tampa, Jeff decided to seek ordination in the Metropolitan Community Churches. He returned to seminary at Emory University in Atlanta, and earned his Master's of Divinity in 2006.

He served as Associate Pastor at MCC of Greater St. Louis (2006-2008) and has been on staff at MCCSF since August 2008.

Jeff has a passion for building community, providing excellent pastoral care, and empowering others to carry out ministry.

Ryan Connolly, Taizé and Morning Choir Director

Ryan came to MCC in May of 2009 from the Twin Cities, where he worked at a Catholic church outside of St. Paul.

Having just completed architecture school in 2008, he worked for a company in Minneapolis that transferred him to the Bay Area in February 2009.

Before going back to school to study architecture, Ryan taught high school choir and music theory for 5 years. During that time, he also worked with the Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota, where he conducted their mixed voice Chorale of students in grades seven through nine.

Ryan edited the state journal for the American Choral Directors Association, earning a national award for content and design.

San Francisco and MCC are still both very new to Ryan, and he is looking forward to getting to know what both have to offer.

Shelley Kutilek, Office Manager/Executive Assistant

Shelley is a Bay Area native, born and raised in San Jose, and has lived on almost all sides of the Bay at some point. She received her bachelor's degree in liberal arts with an emphasis in music from Mills College in 2002. Since then, she has worked primarily managing offices and providing administrative support within both corporate and non-profit environments, while also pursuing her love of music through singing at local venues and private events. Shelley began attending the MCCSF 7pm service in 2003 where she first met her wife, a long-time member, Liz Kennedy. Upon her first visit to MCCSF, Shelley was immediately enthralled by the music of the Worship & Praise Team and felt truly excited about church for the first time in her life. When the Office Manager position became available during the spring of 2008, she was thrilled at the opportunity to apply her varied skills to a queer affirming workplace, which also enables her to support a unique spiritual community. Shelley just released her first CD called "Resolution" in August 2009, and is available for birthdays, bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings, and staff meetings.

Steve Marlowe, Finance and Accounting

Steve Marlowe is a native of Chicago, where he was educated (University of Illinois Chicago), liberated (moved to Boys Town and then came out), and spiritually emancipated at Good Shepherd Parish MCC in 1979. A bookkeeper by trade, he has worked and volunteered at several non-profits over the years. At GSP he held service positions as Deacon, Lay Preacher, and Board Vice-Moderator. He also founded the Contemporary Gospel Singers, and Brother (a queer spirit rock band), both of which headlined Chicago Pride and many other events. He moved to San Francisco in 1989, and immediately joined MCCSF and the Worship & Praise ensemble. From there he became involved in various communities, coordinating over 100 retreats and workshops focusing on community building. When not reconciling bank statements, you can find him playing guitars at Taizé and Worship & Praise, or obeying his four-pawed boys Malcolm and Mortimer.

Stephanie Smith, Evening Choir Director

Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, Stephanie Lynne Smith is an active pianist, conductor, clinician, vocal coach, worship leader and chamber musician in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1998) and a Master of Music degree in chamber music performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2001).

She particularly enjoys working in teams, presenting original compositions by Queer composers living in the Bay Area, organizing and hosting fundraisers and variety shows, and specializes in program re-vitalization and worship in the style of Taize.

Stephanie has been a member of the MCC San Francisco worship staff off and on since 1999. Her proudest accomplishments include seeing MCCSF's Taize service grow quadruple in size, touring with the Worship and Praise Team to Georgia and Florida culminating in a performance to a packed house of 3,500, and premiering many works by living composers, but most especially ilyas iliya. In addition to her work with MCCSF, Stephanie is the music director for New Spirit Community Church in Berkeley, a worship facilitator for MCC General Conference July 2010 in Acapulco, co-founder of Gay, Lesbian and Allied Musicians (GLAM) Youth Choir, and a member of the Events Committee for GALA Choruses, Inc.

On her 32nd birthday, Stephanie married full-time dogwalker Jen Brown in San Francisco City Hall. They live happily ever after in the Mission District of San Francisco with their crippled rescue dog, Jacky, and their very quiet Chihuahua, Mackie.