16.06.2025
“If it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for us” – Pride Evensong
“If it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for us” was the message from Bishop Bonnie Perry at a special service of Evensong to mark Pride in Dublin on Friday evening (June 13). Bishop Perry, who is XI Bishop of the Diocese of Michigan in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, was the preacher at the annual service which is organised by Changing Attitude Ireland in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
Bishop Perry said that when the early Christian movement was beginning to coalesce, before Saul became Paul but after the Holy Spirit drove the apostles into the streets speaking languages from near and far, the disciples Peter and John were out telling the story of Jesus’s death on the cross, his resurrection, of Jesus’s love and his forgiving of people’s sins.
She said they were speaking with such conviction that people were gathering and listening and believing. New believers were gathering together and forming communities and caring for each other in a way that was setting the religious authorities’ teeth on edge.
“A movement fuelled by love and filled with pride is beginning,” she commented. “The religious authorities were scared. It’s not what they teach. It’s not what they grew up believing so after chastising Peter and John on one occasion and telling them to no longer speak their truth publicly, they let them go. 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 because – let me just say again – if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us.”
Peter and John showed no sign of relinquishing their determination to tell the story of Jesus, so there was a stand off between those who wanted to speak their truth and those who would prefer that they just not say things that were changing the landscape and upsetting the balance of power, she said. But a pharisee spoke to them saying that if this movement was of human origin then it would fail like the others, but if it was of God then nothing the authorities could do would contain it.
Bishop Perry told the congregation that for decades society and the institutional church has told LGBTQ+ people that they are not good enough and their lives are wrong and their love is less than.
“For centuries the church has said that who we are – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, non–binary, the categories keep evolving much like the universe – for decades the structures of power have said no to us and they have said: ‘Stop speaking. Be silent. Don’t tell us. Do not speak your truth’. 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. 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’s being in our lives. For as we tell our stories others will see God in our lives and they will know that they too are beloved of God,” she said.
Bishop Perry came out when she was in seminary. She had doubts and while on retreat a nun, who reminded her of the story of Gamaliel the pharisee, said she was sure that she sinned but her love for Susan, her wife, was not one of those sins. Her fears faded and she understood that God loved her completely. “And this my friends, is what I long for for all of us. That each and every one of us may know that we are loved, that you are held, that you are cherished and adored. Hold your heads high and share that love with everyone who you encounter. That truth and our souls will change our lives. That truth will change their lives. That truth will change our world… That truth that Jesus came into this world that we might know that we are profoundly loved and if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us,” she concluded.
During the service the lessons were read by Oisin O’Reilly of OutHouse LGBTQ+ Centre, Moninne Griffith of BelongTo Youth Services, and Matty Zaradich of the Commmunity of St Laurence at Christ Church Cathedral. Prayers were led by Mark Bowyer, former chair of Changing Attitude Ireland. After the service Bishop Perry was made a Patron of Changing Attitude Ireland.