Hellen’s Projects

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.

BYLAWS

SPONSORSHIP

UNPC

PIMP

ARCHIVES

 

BYLAWS

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.

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SPONSORSHIP

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.

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UNPC

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.

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PIMP

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.

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THE ARCHIVES

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.

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This page last updated June, 2022.