Being A Sister of Perpetual Indulgence
Well, that pretty well sums it up. Thanks to Sister Unity for creating this.
Dear Readers, It is with humble excitement that we offer the…
Dear Readers,
It is with humble excitement that we offer the first issue of ONE VEIL to you.
After months of talking about it amongst ourselves, we finally made the decision to move forward with this project. When sharing the news on the World DISH that we would begin creating the first issue, we were so surprised with the overwhelming support from Sisters and Guards around the world. What was found to be also so surprising was the attraction that some non-Sister community members had and the enthusiasm they shared with us on being able to finally see the finished product of the first issue.
To be completely honest, there were a few Sisters who, although they loved the idea, warned us that we should not take it personally if we found that there wasn’t much interest in this venture, because it had been tried before. We kindly took those comments as future constructive criticisms and decided to give it a shot anyway.
Since taking our first vows as a Missionary Order in Orlando in January of 2010, we have had the great pleasure of meeting many Nuns and Guards from various orders around the country as well as a few Nuns from other countries. Having this great opportunity to be present with each other allowed the sharing of best practices from one house to another. Not to mention, the ability to interact with Nuns and Guards from every walk of life on social networks such as Facebook, is a learning experience each time we log on. Hopefully those learning experiences will continue for many many years to come.
As is evident by the cover, One Veil will be featuring a different house each month, and on occasion will also feature a mission house. We thought it only appropriate to feature San Francisco in the premier issue of One Veil. In addition, we have been able to capture a few pearls of wisdom from some of the founding members.
History shows that the beginnings of Community Service as white-faced Nuns began with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in the late 1970s, but reality proves that there are now other Orders as well as Faerie organizations that perform those same Community Service outreaches and devote themselves to the same cause.
It is all of these organizations that we will be featuring each month as we hope to Learn from each other, Love each other and Support each other.
ONE VEIL!
In Service,
Sister T’Keela Mockingburd
And
Sister Isadora Knocking
Nun World Order The last 5 years have seen a tremendous…
Nun World Order
The last 5 years have seen a tremendous explosion of new queer nun Orders. It was at the San Francisco 30th Anniversary celebration that I discovered why. As I eavesdropped into nun conversations during the Dolores Park performances, the whisper was “…Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.” Indeed, much as social media has spawned revolutions all over the world, the nun revolution taking place in cyber space manifested itself, in real life, in the formation of new Orders across the world. We now have missions and Orders in 34 U.S. cities. There was a time that the entire phenomenon was in danger of dying out.
In the early 1980’s the San Francisco Order numbered about 35 nuns, and only the Sydney, Australia and Toronto, Canada Orders existed outside of San Francisco. (Mother Theresa Nervina founded the Seattle Order in 1987.)
The Canadian Order folded due to pressure from their community. Their community believed the nuns were “ruining it for everyone”. Indeed, we were under the same pressure from community assimilationists to end our manifestation because “straight people might be offended”. Instead, we defiantly made a satirical bumper sticker slogan of this nonsense.
As AIDS began to sicken and kill Sisters, and 5 years of frantic event productions burnt-out many nuns, Sisters Mish and Agnes left for Tennessee and Vermont. Reverend Mother remained inactive until her death in 1993.
Of the original group only Marquesa, Grace and I remained active. Between 1985-87 only 5 Sisters joined: Sisters Mysteria, Dana, Blanche, Luscious and Roma. I believed that if we endured these times of lean membership, eventually our community would see the value in our service, and new members would be attracted to SPI. Those years were a burdensome cross on my back to keep the Order alive, but the vision was strong, and my determination great! I did not know how long it would take, but I dedicated my entire life to the cause, and was SURE that the community would come around to our way of thinking.
Then along came ACT-UP and Queer Nation. The attitude of the gay community changed. Diversity replaced conformity in our value system, and SF-SPI began to grow again. 1990 saw the formation of London SPI, and the following year Heidelberg/Mannheim, Germany.
As long as religion, sexuality and gender –identity remain unresolved potent issues within society, there will continue to be powerful roles for queer nuns. Simply APPEARING in habit in public is itself a political statement about these issues.
And APPEARING is happening in more places today than most thought possible. With our phenomenal expansion worldwide, UNITY is the most pressing need at this time. Regardless of the NAME of your Order, the style of your wimple, or your vocation (activism, ritual, fundraising or social service), WE ARE ALL QUEER NUNS. Let’s all PULL together! (P.U.L.L.) Peace, Unity and Lots of Love…ONE VEIL!
Grand Mother Vicious Power Hungry Bitch
A Founder of SPI (1979)
San Francisco
How We Became The Sisters of Perpetual IndulgenceBy Sister Soami…
How We Became The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
By Sister Soami DeLux
In that first year (‘79) after three of us (Ken, Barouk, Fred) manifested on Holy Saturday of the Easter weekend and four of us (Ken, Fred, Bill and Edmund) moved in together and established our first Convent in the Haight at 231 Ashbury, we were without a name for our emerging order of nuns. On the Memorial Day weekend opening of the SF gay softball league Ken and Ed got into habit accompanied by me and Bill in mufti. They did pompon routines for the fans and players and were a great hit.
That summer we did the Castro Street Fair all in habits and were joined by Sr. Erica America (a solo sister in SF who predated us). He wore a red, white and blue mini habit with veil attached to a star framed face and was on roller skates (not blades, back then.) I believe he won the $100 pize for BEST DRAG ON WHEELS. We passed out a few hundred quickly executed holy cards that asked if you wanted to join a nun’s group forming and if so, call Sr. Solicitation at the number given. By then Ken was Sr. Adhanarisvara (a Hindu deity of male and female proportions), Billy was Rev. Mother (RM, a persona he occasionally did when going to those early Cockettes shows in North Beach in the early ’70s, along with Sr. Ed (not our Ed/Agnes) who was a full-on member of that troupe, and one of their chief costumers.) Edmund was Sr. Hysterectoria (H) and I was Sr. Missionary Position (MP).
I don’t remember the convent phone ringing off the hook afterwards. It was when RM and H attended that first “Spiritual Gathering for Radical Faeries”
in Arizona over the Labor Day Weekend that recruitment really happened.
(it seems like we might have an affinity for holidays, does it not.) Our Order quickly swelled to 14-15 by October and we began to organize in earnest.
Still we did not have a name.
Finally, in January or early February, we convened on a Sunday afternoon at Sr. Hot Patootie / Mary Media’s collective household on Page Street in the lower Haight, near Duboce Park. We met principally to decide on a name for ourselves. I came to the meeting having mined my catholic upbringing for ecclesiastical terminology. I recalled the partial indulgences one got for the recitation of aspirations or ejaculations like ‘Holy Mary, protect us from all harm.’ You got plenary indulgences (good for going directly to heaven and not stopping off in purgatory after death) by saying a rosary on one blessed by the pope or maybe doing the Stations of the Cross for nine consecutive First Fridays. This plenary indulgence was an expiation of all the temporal punishment due to sinful acts or thoughts; truly a ticket to heaven, until you committed your next mortal sin and had to seek a confessor for absolution.
Up the hill from us in the Haight was a convent of cloistered Roman sisters, the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. 24/7 they prayed before the Blessed Sacrament in their chapel. They were not unknown to us as we met that Sunday early in the new year of 1980. At the meeting we wrote liturgical and ritual terms down on paper and began to mix and match: Sisters of Divine Ejaculation, Sisters of Joyful Aspirations, Sisters of Exquisite Expiation, The Sisters of Scintillating Sacraments. The Order of Absolut Adoration was intoxicating and The Order of Plenary Indulgence didn’t quite do it, but the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence quickly won favor and assent. In it was a vision and a promise we could deliver to the clones on Castro. It was, indeed, a life we we’re living in our pre-AIDS innocence.
Within the month, Sr. Succuba calligraphed our first banner in his impeccable gothic script, white letters on black satin. It and the habits (robes, veils, bibs and wimples) Sr. Hysterectoria commissioned thru SF Neighborhood Arts using his Reconstellation Dance Theater (a non-profit), were ready for our public SPI debut at the SF March and Rally against nuclear power on the occasion of the first anniversary of 3-Mile Island, March 28, 1980.
Pompon routines and the recitation of a Rosary in Time of Nuclear Peril established the tenor of our mission, both comic and profound.
SAN FRANCISCO 1979. On Easter Weekend, during time of the…
SAN FRANCISCO
1979. On Easter Weekend, during time of the “Castro Clone,” being extremely bored with the conformist atmosphere three men went out into the streets to challenge the world. They went in full, traditional habits through the streets of our city and down to the nude beach. One even carried a machine gun (for protection). They were met with shock and amazement, but captured everyone’s interest. Their next appearance was at a softball game where their pompon routine all but stole the show.
In the fall of 1979, Sister Hysterectoria (Edmund Garron) and Reverend Mother (Bill Graham) went to the first International faerie gathering and encountered even more men with the calling. Our 4 Founders, Sister Vicious PHB, Reverend Mother, Missionary Position and Hysterectoria-Agnes convened their friends, chose our name (The Sisters of
Perpetual Indulgence) and composed our mission statement: to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.
2012. Here we are 33 years after the first manifestation and One Veil has a conversation with the current president of the San Francisco house for a brief Q&A.
What is your full Sister name and when did you become fully professed?Sister Risqué of the Sissytine Chapel. Postulant: 5/1995, FPM: 8/1996
Are you a board member? If so, what position do you currently hold?
I am currently the Abbess (President), and I therefore also serve on the Board.
How many active members are currently in the SF House?
“Active” is a loose term, but I would estimate the number to be 75.
How often does the SF house have general membership meetings?
Once a month.
In your own words, describe the San Francisco order of SPI.
The Sisters form community from within so that we can spread joy and better serve the community around us. Many members of the San Francisco Order have moved here from other parts of the United States to make a better life for themselves. The Sisters foster a sense of kinship that strengthens each individual member, thereby empowering members to perform service to the larger community that surrounds us.
Since the day you joined SPI, what are the biggest changes that you’ve noticed or witnessed in both the organization and yourself?The biggest change I’ve seen in the Order is growth in membership - I’ve seen our numbers grow exponentially. When I first approached the Order in 1994,
there could easily be fewer than ten or fifteen members at a general
membership meeting. At that time, the Order had been hit hard by the AIDS epidemic and was continuing the process of regrouping and rebuilding.Today, there are easily 50-plus members at a general membership meeting.
The biggest difference I’ve seen in myself in those 17 years is an awareness of the need to give back what has been given to me. I moved to San Francisco at the age of 20 and saw the Sisters not only as a fun means of social activism, but also as a way to create a sense of family in a new city. Today, as a 38-year-old, I recognize the joy that being a Sister has brought me, and I view my work with the Sisters as a means of giving back what has been given to me. In a nutshell, I was more selfish and less self aware at 20, and today I strive to be less selfish and more self aware.
As a board member of the SF House, what are your expectations or goals of the house for 2012?
My biggest internal goal is to see all members communicating directly with each other and taking the time to understand each other’s perspectives before reacting. My biggest external goal is to continue the tradition of all the Abbesses I have seen come before me to facilitate and harness the amazing power and talent we have in our Order to best serve our community.
What are you currently most excited about?I am most excited about the vast array of services we can provide our community - with active membership nearing 80 people, we have the power to be everywhere at once.
If you were asked to give advice to a mission house that was going through the process of becoming a fully professed house, what would that advice be?
Although the sense of kinship one gets from the Sisters is empowering, the top focus should always be on the community we serve. Gossip and negative talk about fellow Sisters does nothing to further our vows and uses time and energy that is needed elsewhere.
What does being a Sister mean to you, personally?Being a Sister means nurturing a sense of community from within and using the power of the Sisterhood as a means to give back to my community at large.
Before most of us started to walk the path towards being a…
Before most of us started to walk the path towards being a Sister(1) of Perpetual Indulgence, there was a time during which our wish to join The Sisters formed. In this essay I would like to take a closer look to these first moments of wanting to be a part of the worldwide order of 21st century nuns: The Call.
An essential part of Christian belief is an inventory of special abilities and feats that every human being is equipped with. The so-called Vocation in Catholic Church expressed the series of circumstances leading to the connection with the gift to serve God and the community; the meaning of this term changed in 16th century and from then on until now describes the process of establishing contact with all our inner talents, resulting into the decision to use and to as well strengthen as expanding them. Our Call therefore is exactly the same thing as the Vocation of all spiritual guides or human beings; it is the same development as an artist finds out about his ability to produce art or as a person recognizing to be able to love another person for the first time. Thus our Call is nothing special in itself; it might nevertheless be perceived as something extraordinary by members of the Queer Community.
The Call is not one special feeling, not one defined moment. We all experience the Call and there are a lot of ways to face it. As I see it there is no way to be a Sister without having a Call; the enourmous variants of the manifestation of the Call sometimes make it difficult to identify the Call in others. And although there always is a Call in those who want to join the Sisters, having the Call is no guarantee to being able to achieve the goal of being a Fully Professed member of the order.
The Call manifests in many ways and can be accompanied by diverse feelings: Quite a lot of Sisters describe a sudden urge, a strong need to contact an SPI Order to be able to join it; this often seems to be aligned with emotions of seeking togetherness and even the wish to find some sort of new family. For several Sisters the Call is a more realistic and rational approach to act in a way worthwhile to others. And there are Sisters who experience the Call by wanting to act honourably and correctly.
In a lot of cases, Sisters are involved in waking the Call within others; it is not unusual that the acts and manifestation of Sisters in a city or country inspire others to feel the desire to be a Sisters as well.
Regardless of its form of manifestation, the Call always inserts the awareness that something new is happening. The feeling of innovation is a main engine for the first steps towards the Sisters and into a local order.
It seems to be quite normal among the Called to have doubts and fears. The Sisters often seem to be quite impressive to them and thus they feel “too small” or as if they “could not meet the expectations of the Sisters”. As a consequence aspirants often feel torn between the feeling “to want to be a Sister” and a variation of a inferiority complex which originates to social and societal conditioning.
The Call is a delicate thing; it will wane and vanish, or at least shrivel to a crippled remainer, if the Called does not provide the conditions for the Call being able to unfold: A Call need scope and space (stress and emotional constriction are very counterproductive), it must be dealt with a passionate form of sobriety, it should be discussed (first with friends and family, then with Sisters), it should be perceived and carefully observed (the Call needs attention, because that helps it to unfold) and it must not be spurred excessively (otherwise it will hit a wrong direction and might even backfire on the Called).
When actively ignored or avoided (“No, I do not want to join the Sisters!”), the Call will not chease to exist. Working against the Call will provide it enough “energy” to subsist; through active rejection it gets attention and thus can continue to be within the Called.
It helps when the Called gets into contact with Sisters shortly after experiencing the Call; but in a lot of cases it takes quite some time (even years) until the Called decides to follow the Call, which is another feature of the Call: You always have full freedom of decision, you can live for years or even decades without ensuing to the Call.
As the Call is more a process than an event or feeling, it will need support, especially if the Called hesitates. Thus, it is helpful when there are Sisters in the local order who are proficient in detecting and fostering the Call in community members.
It is not that easy to see the Call in others: As the Called often is tangled up in feelings of guilt, doubt and often shame, we sometimes believe that he or she “does not have the Call”; and this rating usually is confirmed by the unawareness (and thus lumbering way of being able to express their feelings) of the Called.
It might be a good idea for larger Houses to install a “Mistress of Vocation” who is able to take care of the Called in the community and to support their Calls; in smaller Houses I would think this duty could or should be born by the Mother or the Mistress of Novices.
There comes a time when a Called decides not only to answer the Call, but also to actively take steps into an Order; the very first time a Call is officially put into words and communicated to Sisters is a very special moment. During my research I found out that no one forgot the situation in which he/she “officially” expressed the fact that they now will follow the Call. This moment is a crucial point in the history of a person and thus each and every Sister should honour and never despise this situation later on (even when the Called disappoints you at any moment in his continuing life), because it will hurt the Called very deeply.
The Call will not be there forever after being expressed and followed; it will fuel the first steps in apprenticeship, will carry the Called through the aspiring time. The very moment in which a Called had learned enough about the Sisters to make the decision to stay with the Order (usually then being elevated to Postulant) the Call will transform into a sort of “inner nun”, an intricate combination of “feeling of true behaviour” and “knowing to do the right thing”; this “inner nun” is similar to the “inner justice” (an ethical implemenatation in our identity which is a major topic in philosophy) we all have within us.
When we, after completing our apprenticeship and being blackveiled, sit down and get into contact with the core of “being a Sister”, we touch our Call which had evolved into self-awareness about our roots which brought us to the Sisters originally.
The backgrounds and specifications of the Call are vast; it will take deeper disquisition of the various details of the dynamics to Calls; nevertheless it is the Call (regardless in which way and course of events it manifests) which is the foundation for us being a Sister –which we all have in us.
(1) “Sister” will be used as a synonym for all the variants of fully professed members.