It's been - egad - a decade since I learned that a young researcher, H, had discovered the Church of the Holy Apostles to have been an important hub for gay rights organizing around and even before Stonewall. The researcher, now a friend, was passing through NYC this weekend and came to church with us. (She's known and loved by the congregation, having given a rousing talk for us on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.) But her research is ongoing, and keeps uncovering more inspiring stuff!
A particularly exciting example: It was at Holy Apostles that the first open lesbian, Ellen Barrett, was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood, in 1977. She'd had a long relationship with the church, knowing it in part through some of the secular organizations that had meetings in the parish house. The last time I talked with H about her, she told me she'd tried and tried to track the Rev. Dr. Barrett down, but she seemed to have fled the world for a monastic order. That turns out to be true - but not the end of the story! It emerges that Sister Helena OSB, as she is now known, has become a priest affiliate at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, and quite a few of her sermons are available online. (May I say thank you, covid?)
H has been in touch with now 75-year-old Barrett, and plans to interview her soon. All very exciting, as she was an eyewitness, a partic-ipant, a focal point of so much of this history! I found a taste of how delight-ful and informative that conversation will surely be on the
twitter feed of a short-lived inclusive Christian youth group - notes from an autobiographical talk Helena Barrett gave in 2018, with the hashtag #WhyStayLGBT - though #WhyStayChristian was clearly a theme too!
Quite a story she tells, with lots of doors closing and others opening. She did indeed join a monastic community in Britain in 2004 as an "alongsider" - where she met another nun who became her wife!
The voice that emerges from these notes, and from the recordings of her sermons, is so engaging... "Why am I a Christian?" she said, "Because I can't not be, and even the church can't stop me, though God knows theyve tried"! I hope can talk to her sometime, too...
