Sistory

Sistory

Around about 1976 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, some retired habits from a convent of Roman Catholic nuns were lent to a group of men for their production of “The Sound of Music”. The Hills were alive when, three years later, these same habits were resurrected by queer men in the streets of San Francisco’s Castro district. Herein lays the inception of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In 1980, the first Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was created along with their unique habits, “ear-brassier” wimples, logo and banner for their first official public appearance.

The mission of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is to promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt and serve the community. Today, there are Orders of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence throughout the United States, Australia, Colombia, France, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Uruguay. For more information about the Sisters in these regions, please visit our World Orders page.

On February 10, 2010, the first two founding members of The Abbey of the Long Cedar Canoe (Sister Merry Q. Contrary and Sister Ethica Slüt) performed a initiatory ritual in Stanley Park to firmly ground the Abbey and our work in Vancouver. On February 14, 2010, at Breitenbush Hotsprings Winter Radical Faerie Gathering, ‘The Abbey of the Long Cedar Canoe’ was acknowledged by a larger community. With Sister Merry Peter of the San Francisco House presiding, Merry Q. and Ethica were veiled and Hyde ‘N Sikh was acknowledge as a postulant. All were encouraged to go home to do the work of becoming an officially recognized Mission of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and to serve the community in Vancouver. In June of 2010, SirCumStance joined the Vancouver group as the fourth founding member, allowing the Abbey to apply to be recognized as an official Mission of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

On August 4, 2012, after 2 1/2 years of finding glitter in all sorts of fun and unusual places, the Abbey of the Long Cedar Canoe became a Fully Professed House of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence -- the first in Canada in over 25 years.