A quick primer on the Order of Perpetual Indulgence

(Again, a reminder that this is my personal blog, so these are my personal views, and I’m not speaking on behalf of the OPI.)

As I’ve mentioned on my “About” page, I’m active as a member of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence, but who are they, and what are they about?

Well, let’s start off this way. Have you ever been to a Pride march, and seen people who look like they’re nuns with clown faces and elaborate drag attire: people like this?

If so, you’ve seen the Order of Perpetual Indulgence (aka The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence)- and they are nuns.

The OPI is a group of 21st century secular queer nuns, whose mission is to:

1. Promulgate Universal Joy. Promote the (somehow, still radical) idea that it is right to be the beautiful person you are inside.
2. Expiate Stigmatic Guilt. Removing the unneccessary guilt piled on us by society.
3. Serve the Community. This is the LGBT+ community, but we’ve supported causes in the wider community too. Typical activities including turning up to support events, giving out safer sex packs, (Which contains condoms and lube as well as helpful information) organising coffee mornings etc.

When I say “nuns”, I don’t mean I just threw on a Habit one day and decided to be fabulous. Like nuns, the OPI have a path, or journey, for anyone wanting to be involved. When I first got involved with them, I was merely their photographer. Then as I got more interested I became an Aspirant, someone who wants to join the Sisters on their work. After a few events with the Sisters, and learning their history, I became a Postulant, the lowest order for a nun, and wore the clown-face makeup for the first time. (But no lipstick- you’re supposed to be listening rather than talking.)

After that, I learned how to make a formal nun’s Habit, (It’s not a “costume”, it’s a Habit. All the Sisters have formal Habits, with different distinct designs for each group, so you can tell at a glance a member of a particular group, and where they are in their Sister journey. Putting on the Habit and face is known as Manifesting.) which meant I could become a Novice, the next level up. Now, I could wear lipstick, and I gained the distinctive ‘giomp’ collar, which gains badges from my various travels.

I’m still restricted, of course. I cannot speak for the OPI, although I can speak for my experiences in my journey, which is what I’m doing here. (Hence the disclaimer at the start of this post.)

Next, I’m going to be involved in a project, and hopefully upon completion of that, and with the agreement of those higher up, I become fully fledged Sister. If this sounds quite elaborate, that’s because it is. In fact, it’s actually more elaborate. Going up a level is marked by a ceremony, conducted in public and usually in Polari, called Elevation. There’s things that are quite reminiscent of drag culture. For example, you choose a Sister name, which is usually a humourous joke and/or pun. (For example, I’m currently Novice Wye Dangle of the Shuttering Loins, a reference to my photography skills- amongst other things.) Also, choosing someone as your Mother ie mentor. A lot of it is borrowed from religious texts too. A group of the OPI without any fully-fledged Sisters is known as a Mission, and one with Sisters is known as a House.

Even as a fully fledged Sister, you still have rules. Normally, although I have heard of exceptions, a nun from the OPI cannot go out by themselves, especially on a whim. Obviously, you need at least one other person out with you to keep an eye out. Often this person is a hench, an ally who does not dress as a nun; or a Knight, who dresses like… Well, guess.

The advantage of having people like this around you when you’re in Nun mode is that not only can they carry stuff and keep any eye out for you, they can also talk to anyone that approaches our group, interested in asking who we are, but is a bit wary of approaching the scary clown nun.

Oh yes, talking. I’ve talked to so many people in my two years as a nun, and noticed others talk to our group, but they’re maybe a bit scared to talk to us directly. Until they actually talk to us.

When I mentioned history earlier, (I have heard the word Sistory used quite often.) I wasn’t joking, as there is 40 plus years of history of the OPI, which started out as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in San Fransisco in Easter 1979, and has since spread world wide. I won’t go into all of it, as this would cease to be a short primer, but you can read more about it in the history section in this handy Wikipedia entry here, which includes the roles the Sisters played in the AIDS crisis, including producing the first ever safer sex guide aimed at the LGBT+ community. There is also a great book by Melissa Wilcox called “Queer Nuns” which contains lots of information about the past and present of the movement.

You’ll notice I’m referring to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence there, and Order of Perpetual Indulgence elsewhere. Well, the former is a trademark in North America, so elsewhere is officially the latter. Colloquially, however, I’ve heard everyone refer to each other as Sisters, irrespective of where they are on their journey.

I’ll add more bits of info as I add posts- it’ll be under the OPI tag and category- as it’s Pride season, and the Sisters are going to be very busy!

The above picture was taken at Cardiff Pride in 2018. I also took a lot of photos of this event, which you can view here.

You can see more my photos of the OPI at my Flickr OPI Collection.