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Miss Katherine shares a delightful afternoon tea with the new Mother of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Mother Mary Kay Lipstick, enjoying petit fours and freshly brewed tea while discussing her new duties , spiritualism, elections, new novices, orders and questions of a coup at the convent….
Miss Katherine: Mother Mary Kay Lipstick welcome to my parlour, how are you?
Mother Mary-Kay: Oh, well, I am very nervous…
MK: Mother Mary-Kay, there is no need to be nervous, I hear you are the new Mother of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence…
MM: Yes, I am the new Mother of the Abbey of the Black Swan of the Perth House, WA.
MK: Pray, Can I be nosy? Was there a coup at the convent? What happened? How did you become Mother? What happened to Mother Greta?
MM: Ha ha ha, I think Mother Greta just died of exhaustion, she was the Mother of the House for over 20 years, so she was only too happy to surrender her position to a new Mother.
MK: Was there a process to you taking your new position?
MM: Yes, when a position became available all sisters are welcome to apply for the appointment and then an election is held whereby the other sisters of the order will elect who they wish to be the new Mother. A confidence vote you might say.
MK: Well congratulations! With my interview a year ago with Mother Greta I understood that the group were an order of spiritual healers, and I believe you are personally affiliated with another religious order…
MM: I am an interfaith chaplain part-time so I have an interest in all faiths, and I am personally related to the Franciscan Order here in Perth. The Franciscan Order are a community of brothers and sisters who share a love for Saint Francis. I also have an interest in Hinduism and Buddhism.
MK: Now, Mother Mary-Kay, I have heard along the grapevine that the sisters now have a website…
MM: We do, we have a beautiful website! What I do is leave little reports on it every week and people are welcome to send emails to me and browse the photos of all the sisters and all the wonderful things we do and the people involved in it t as well as all of our other sisters from around the world. We are a global network of people who wish to spread universal joy and we believe in the equality of gay men and women and transgendered people within our community. Spreading universal joy is one of our major responsibilities. My duties include keeping up supply of information between myself and all the gathered faithful around the world through our website. It’s also to bring some direction to our community here in Perth, keeping us in focus with the many responsibilities that we have, to challenge people’s views on what being an OPI sister is. We are a network of gay, bi-sexual, straight and transgender people who come together as sisters, we are not and do not pretend to be a Christian organisation.
MK: Spreading universal joy, what a beautiful responsibility…
MM: Yes, we do this by performing weddings, rituals, guest appearances, blessings, hospital visits – all sorts of things.
MK: Have the sisters expanded since I last interviewed Mother Greta?
MM: We have three new novices at the moment, which is really nice. Our newest Novice is Sister Novice Freda Bang-bang-me Like-a-boomerang and we are always looking for new sisters to join our fold.. Our former Mother now goes by the royal name, Dowager Mother Greta Amyletta of the Holy Vapours
MK: Holy smoke!.. So there really wasn’t a coup at the convent! Finally, do you have a favourite saying about Mother Mary Kay?
MM: My name is Mother Mary-Kay Lipstick, if you ever had the chance to meet me, my lips could stick!!
If you are interested in becoming a novice you can contact Mother Mary-Kay at opi.perth.blogsopot.com
