In a significant step for the Church of Ireland, Bishop Bonnie Perry, the first out lesbian Bishop of Michigan in the Episcopal Church, delivered the annual Pride sermon at Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral on June 15. The sermon, held in partnership with Belong To Youth Services, Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre and Changing Attitude Ireland, signals Christ Church’s commitment to opening its doors to all.

Dr Lucy Michael of Changing Attitude Ireland stresses the need for Bishop Perry’s visit, “With three of the 14 Church of Ireland dioceses last year voting unanimously for blessings of same-sex civil marriages, it is timely to have discussions about how we move together as a church when we have divergent views.”

In a sign of the mounting tension within the Church of Ireland between progress and tradition, the Bishop of Down and Dromore, David McClay, condemned the invitation of Bishop Perry as a “significant departure from the historic faith, the teaching and the discipline of the Church of Ireland.”

Despite this criticism, the Pride sermon went ahead in Dublin with Bishop Perry sharing a powerful message of the inherent worth of all people; “And I say to you… as someone who is made in God’s image and likeness, as a bishop in a Christian church, as an out, proud, partnered lesbian, I say to you, speak your truth. We are made in God’s image and likeness and fully embraced by Christ just as we are.”

Alongside the sermon, Bishop Perry held a workshop on LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church, sharing her experience of activism within the Episcopal religion, facilitating “discussions about rising global homophobia, transphobia, conversion therapy and the exclusion of queer people from positions in the church from parish, choir and vestry to ordinant training and appointment.”

 

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Matty Zaradich, LGBTQ+ rights activist, volunteer at Christ Church and former mentee of Bishop Perry at All Saints Church in Chicago, instigated the historic visit. At All Saints Church, Matty learned from Bishop Perry’s central teaching: “where there is love there is holiness and where there is holiness there is God.”

In the spirit of liberation and queer theology, which view social and political action against injustice and the inclusion of oppressed groups as integral to Christian belief, Bishop Perry and the congregation at All Saints fought for community justice. Their intersectional approach involved advocating against gun violence and racial inequality, holding weekly free, communal meals for all who wished to join and accepting all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression, establishing All Saints as an “inclusive and prayerful” place of refuge. 

Beyond advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in all levels of the church, Matty is hoping to expand this concept of community justice within the newly established Community of St Laurence alongside Reverend Dermot Dunne, Dean at Christ Church Cathedral. The community, the namesake of the patron saint of Dublin, whose heart is among the relics of the Cathedral, hopes to attract all those who believe that the church can offer more to the people of the city, of all backgrounds.

As church attendance in Ireland reaches historic lows and the news cycle presents an isolating and disempowering onslaught of suffering, Matty believes that the church could be a focal point for “belonging and meaning, allowing people to connect with each other and seek the truth, whatever that might mean to them. By opening the doors ever wider, we can allow people to believe again that the world can change for the better.”

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