News & Notes from Clare

Some time ago, a St. Brigid’s parishioner and I had an interesting thought: what if we invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to visit St. Brigid’s for a service? I’d gotten to know about them during my time as a field ed student at St. Paul’s in the West End, and there were former members of St. Brigid’s who’d been Sisters in the past.

I was thrilled to connect with them, and we arranged for not just one visit but two – one for the Sunday before Pride Week (July 30th), and the other for the Sunday after National Coming Out Day (October 15th).

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a worldwide religiously unaffiliated charitable order whose members undertake lifelong vows. Founded in San Francisco in 1979 by a group of gay drag performers, the mission of the Sisters is to “promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt, and serve the community.” They are easily identified by their extravagant outfits and makeup, as well as their playfully irreverent sense of humour. They were also known for doing incredible grassroots work in caring and fundraising for those dying of AIDS in the early 1980s. Since then, their ministry has expanded to mutual aid work and advocacy for a number of other vulnerable populations. They are, in their own way, part of a long heritage of street-level grassroots work by female (or in this case, femme) monastics.

Here in Vancouver, the Abbey of the Long Cedar Canoe was founded and became a fully professed house of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in 2012, the first in Canada in over 25 years.

Imagine my delight last week when, on preparing to listen to, I saw the newest episode of the excellent podcast Straight White American Jesus (hosted by Brad Onishi, adjunct professor of religion at the University of San Francisco), was about the Sisters. Specifically, the episode was an interview with Melissa M. Wilcox, professor and chair of religious studies at UC Riverside, about her new book Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody.

What I didn’t know before listening was that the Sisters were in the news recently. The Los Angeles Dodgers had invited the Sisters to help them celebrate their annual Pride Night but, on receiving a disapproving letter from Senator Marco Rubio and other prominent conservative figures, withdrew the invitation. After a very public backlash, the Dodgers re-invited the Sisters.

Those who publicly disapprove of the Sisters tend to argue that they make a mockery of Christianity, most especially Roman Catholicism and nuns. However, Professor Wilcox counters, “[The Sisters] model themselves off of what they see as the best of the Roman Catholic sisters traditions. They see themselves as emulating nuns, not making fun of them. The Sisters are picking up on a really powerful social justice/social ethics strand of Roman Catholicism that is actually present throughout Christianity[.]”

Indeed, of the original four Sisters, two were raised Roman Catholic, and one was bound for seminary before being outed. Wilcox explains, “The ‘perpetual indulgence’ is a granting of a perpetual release from a sense that queer and trans bodies and lives and sexualities are an enactment of sin. Of course it’s playful, and one of the questions the Sisters really invite us, joyfully, to ask, is why religion always has to be serious.” I’ll add here that all of my interactions with any of the Sisters were incredibly respectful, kind, and fun!

Within the last year and a half, anti-drag laws have been drafted and passed in multiple US states, as well as bills precluding trans people – both children and adults – from accessing gender-affirming care. While this has not been as prevalent in Canada (so far), protests against drag shows and gender-affirming initiatives in public schools and other spaces are becoming more common. The end goal, which has been stated quite explicitly by those in the anti-queer movement, is to legislate trans people out of existence.

Sister Roma of the original San Francisco order, who has been a member since 1987, wrote, “My existence is not an attack on your faith. The problem is some people use their faith as an attack on my existence.” No one can deny that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have done (and continue to do) excellent advocacy work for some of the most vulnerable in society. And, despite the hate, they still cleave to walking a path of love. Wilcox explains that some Sisters wear mirrors on their wimples or costumes to reflect the beauty of the people they encounter every day.

In my experience, playfulness is one of the most effective tools against hate.

I am therefore beyond thrilled to welcome our Sisters to St. Brigid’s worship on Sunday, July 30th, to add some sparkle and whimsy to our gathering.

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Photos: By Gail Evans, St. Paul's Anglican Church, West End. Clare & Sister Petunia Encarnata