I have been active in many
projects within The Sisters of
Perpetual Indulgence. Below are a few of the major ones. I have been
intimately
involved with many things, from Pink Saturday to major photography
projects,
but won’t share all of them here.
As Father Butch, I found myself
the head of the Bylaws
Committee as a Novice back in the early 90s; mostly because no one
wanted to do
it. The SF House was much smaller in those days. There were little more
than a
dozen of us, so it wasn’t impossible for a Novice to be in charge of
something.
Anyway, at the time, The Sisters still hadn’t gotten our 501.c3; partly
because
the IRS wouldn’t approve our non-profit bylaws. Although I did most of
the
initial research (in the library as the internet hadn’t been invented)
and all
the writing, the entire Bylaws Committee worked hard to prepare a set
of
documents that would pass inspection. The group including: Father Pan,
Cardinal
Sin, Sister Dana, Sister Flatulina and Pope Dementia. Members of the
committee
came and went over the next couple of years, but we eventually
succeeded by
submitting a very bare-bone bylaws.
Besides getting the 501.c3, we needed to set the
new
direction of The Sisters. Until that point, the Order was in the hands
of one
or two members who could not only veto most anything, but could
actually
dissolve the House altogether. As an aside, kudos to my great grand
mama, Sister
Vish for grudgingly but voluntarily relinquishing control. Anyway, I
lead the
bylaws committee to come up with many of the tenants that SPI now take
for
granted. There was even discussion of dropping the 501.c3 so that we
could be
as politically active as we wanted. We ditched that as nearly the
entire committee
agreed with me that being a 501.c3 would lead to a greater respect from
the
community. SPI didn’t have anywhere near as much respect at that time
as it
enjoys now.
Being a 100% volunteer organization was another
contentious
concept. There were still a few members that wanted to use the SPI
identity to
make a profit and some that wanted to be paid a (modest) salary for
their work
on events and processes. I spent several weeks in committee and at
membership
meetings trying to get the group to embrace being a full non-profit.
Eventually
Everynun agreed it would be in the group’s best interest.
We also needed to define would could join. Few
thought we
should recruit, so that wasn’t really a problem, but who could be
excluded was
a little trickier. During the 80s, the group had gone from a 100% name
nun
group to allowing women then allowing priest identities. I spent many
hours
coming up with the words that made it clear we would not discriminate.
The only
exception we added was that initiates needed to be 21 or older because
a large
percent of events we participated in served alcohol.
We also had to better define membership steps.
Again, how
individuals got membership and how they progressed was ill defined and
the few
written rules changed and/or were broken frequently. We initially
settled on a
9-month process, but soon extended it to the one-year process that most
Houses
follow now.
I continued to serve as the Bylaws Chair or Parliamentarian for a total of 11 consecutive years, then again in 2014f or a major revision and update. Hellen helped out for a couple more years after that.
Sister Hellen has not sponsored as
many members as some
Sisters of my seniority, but am proud of the ones that I did. In order,
they
are:
Daughter, Sister
Gladass of the Joyous Reserectum. Gladass
was my husband so initially, we agreed to ask Sr. Julia to be his
Mother to
avoid any conflict of interest. However, Julia dropped out and Hellen
formally
took over the roll he’d already been doing, as Gladass’ official
Mother. Even
then, members could progress without an official Mother. I also named
Gladass as well as his postulant name, Father Head Nurse.
The next to ask me to sponsor was my Goddaughter, Sister Selma
Soul. Selma who was known at the time as Saint Cabana Boy and
Hellen were
already friends so it seamed natural.
Sister GiGi Fa’Q
the French Whore was my second daughter.
We’d met at an Imperial Court event and had instantly become friends.
GiGi was
one of the rare members who had zero issues as an initiate. Again, I
gave GiGi
her full name. GiGi was one of the last Sisters to only have a Mother
and no
other sponsors.
Goddaughter, Sister
Sharin’ Dipity Reveal was next. Again,
easy since she had Selma as her mother.
Next, was the last of my Goddaughters, Sister Sybil
Liberties. I had known Syb for years as the manager of All
American Boy. We did
so many events together and got in so much trouble, I still laugh at
our
antics.
Sister KrisTall
Might of the High Morals was my first Little
Sister. The House had changed Goddaughters to Little Sisters to
emphasize that
the Mother was the one that was expected to be the lead of the sponsor
team. I
was disappointed that I couldn’t convince her to take a first name that
started
with “S”, but got over it. I did giver her name in ful.
My one and only son, Guard Tight White, Spawn of Sister
Hellen Wheels was my last Mother roll. Honestly, his request to
have me as his
Mother/Father caught me completely off guard as I was literally
planning on
retiring at the following meeting. Like GiGi, Guard Tight and
Hellen/Abbott
Adamn got in lots of trouble together! Lord we had fun!! Guard Tighty
turned
into Sister Tuna Noodle Cocktail.
I approved of both names even if I hadn’t
chosen the.
Postulant Rachel
Harmony was the next initiate that asked me
to be one of her Big Sisters. She would eventually go on to be Sister Barbra
Ganesh. Barb, introduced me to the joys of fine tequila.
The last of my sponsees was Postulant Rhoda Baloney Pony who became Sister Anges Dei'afta Tamara. I had to be strict with Agnes as I intended to run for Novice Mistress on last time. There wasn’t any issue with nepotism as Agnes followed rules without needing much guidance. Agnes changed her name to Sister Diana Fyre more recently.
In 2005, Sister Penny asked if I would take over
as the
Mistress of Missions as he was going to be the new Emperor of San
Francisco. He
said it wouldn’t be a lot of work as there were only a couple of
interested
cities and he didn’t really think they were ready to act. There were
more
prepared that we’d thought and I quickly found myself trying to manage
4
Missionary Houses with little to no guidance. I’d already been on the
committee
for The Convent of St Joan in Seattle and had given them their
Exequatur along
with Sister Phyllis Stein the Fragrant. I spent well over a year in
discussions
and preparing documents for the new Houses as nothing formal had been
made. I
created a formal, repeatable process for acceptance and progression of
a
Mission to a fully Exequatured, independent House of SPI.
After discussion with my team of House-Mothers,
Sisters,
Candy Cyde, Ivanna Mandalay, Nova Nilla, and Tragedy Ann, I started
work on
converting the Missionary Process from being the sole responsibility
and right
of San Francisco to a new group that was represented by all Fully
Professed
Houses. The name UNPC or United Nuns Privy Council was chosen because
I’d
always thought “Privy Council” was a hilarious term ever since watching
The
Mouse That Roared. Being Un-pc was just a bonus. It was clear from the
beginning that as soon as Houses approved the bylaws of the UNPC, I
would be
stepping back; that under no circumstances would I continue to run or
have a
hand in the Mission Process. Power and responsibility needed to be
completely
decentralized. I do wish it had become a separate 501.c3 and had take
on the
trade mark duties as well, but you can’t have everything.
After the US Supreme court ruled
that same-sex marriage was
legal, there was renewed interest in being able to conduct marriages
legally,
not only in California, but in any state in the union*. That interest
swelled
to wanting to be able to provide spiritual counseling to the community.
Again,
I got conned into being the First Prime-minister of the Perpetual
Indulgence
Ministry Program, which would be run as a ministry separate but related
to SPI.
It took an entire year to research, document. To be honest there were
several
arguments from would-be members on various aspects including NOT
forcing
personal religious beliefs, NOT using the ministry for personal profit
and
attending regular meetings as prescribed by law. Sadly after
relinquishing my
duties as head of PIMP, the group fell into disuse and ended its work.
Some
Sisters have become registered ministers in other religions.
*Note; online “churches” like the Universal Life Church are not recognized in all states as being bonified ministers that can conduct marriages.
When Sister X started the archives back in the early 90s, I was one of the few members that volunteered to help. X and I had started with the group at the same time and were the only two that regularly brought cameras to events, so we had a lot in common. I was the one that suggested work in the archives be mandatory for all initiate and even served as Mistress of Archives a couple years after X’s passing. I became the unofficial Sistorian in the aughts and had free run of the Archives while it was in the Mission. I was often asked to help new members work their hours learning the Sistory of the Order and filing, sorting, cleaning the Archive contents. During that time, I created the most complete list of members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc that had ever been created. It was harder than it sounds as there had never been any attempt to document who came and went from the House, let alone what they status and membership levels were. When I finished a dozen years late, the list had over 200 people on it along with secular names, alternate names, status and highest level of membership.