Women preachers have featured in this blog; the scorecard is marked F. The one with the stray hermeneutics, the one who prepared a sermon in a shower the day before preaching in it, and the one who had four questions when there was to be one.
Then there was the recent sermon of Bishop Bonnie Perry.
The Bishop preached at a Dublin Pride Service as linked. A tragedy of “pride”.
I have summarised the sermon below. The summary – of a sermon which is absent of any direct exposition of Biblical text - concludes with: “The core message is that if it was right for Jesus's apostles to speak their truth with pride, it is equally right and necessary for the LGBTQIA+ community to do the same.”
And, it is in that summary that we see the failure of the sermon, that the apostle’s (Peter and John, [Acts 3]) were not speaking in pride, but in humility - indeed, the apostles were at threat of imprisonment [Acts 4]. They spoke filled with the Holy Spirit [Acts 2]. The apostles were not speaking in pride but instead in boldness and unapologetic first-person witness. They were humble men who had the un-measurable support and strength of Christ.
And speaking in boldness and unapologetic first-person witness, in the Spirit, and as representatives of Christ, is completely different from the LGBTQIA+ community's tendency to speak in pride. For that community's pride is regularly evidenced as arrogance, self-exaltation, and hubris.
Summary of sermon
The speaker links the "pride" of Peter and John and the "pride" of the LGBTQIA+ community through the shared act of publicly speaking their truth and living authentically, even in the face of opposition from established authorities.
Here's how the link is made:
1. Pride of Peter and John: The speaker describes Peter and John as being "too public in their preaching and healing in and around the temple," leading to a "movement fueled by love and filled with pride." When chastised by the religious authorities and told to "no longer speak their truth publicly," Peter and John refuse to be silenced. The speaker emphasizes, "But if you know who you are and how you are and you know that your life is changed that's not something you keep inside You have pride and you keep on telling your story." Their pride is their unwavering conviction and determination to share the Gospel despite threats.
2. Pride of the LGBTQIA+ Community: The speaker explicitly connects this to the experience of the queer community. They state that for decades, society and the church have told them "Stop speaking be silent Don't tell us Do not speak your truth." However, the speaker then directly counters this by urging, "I say to you speak your truth... 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. We of the queer community are good enough. We are called to tell the stories of who and how we are and how God lives and moves and has God being in our lives."
The link is established by framing both instances as a courageous and divinely inspired refusal to be silent about a transformative truth. For Peter and John, it was the truth of Jesus's resurrection and love; for the LGBTQIA+ community, it is the truth of their God-given identity and the profound love they experience. Both are acts of defiant, faithful self-expression ("pride") against prevailing norms and oppressive religious or societal structures.
The core message is that if it was right for Jesus's apostles to speak their truth with pride, it is equally right and necessary for the LGBTQIA+ community to do the same.
