Priest Has Awkward Interaction with Woman While Picking Up a Bikini from the Tailor. Her Response Goes Viral (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Rev. Gerlyn Henry had an uncomfortable interaction with a woman after she picked up her bikini from the tailor

• Henry, who was wearing her clerical collar at the time, said the woman approached her after noticing her bikini in a clear dry-cleaning bag

• Henry spoke with PEOPLE exclusively about the interaction, explaining that as a priest, there isn’t anything that she is not allowed to wear

A priest is sharing a recent encounter she had with a woman in a parking lot after picking up her bikini from the tailor.

Rev. Gerlyn Henry, a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada at the Church of the Holy Wisdom in the diocese of Toronto, frequently makes videos online documenting her day in the life as a priest, including matters relating to her faith and other similar content.

In a TikTok video that now has 2.4 million views, Henry recounted a seemingly mundane errand that turned unexpectedly awkward: picking up a thrifted swimsuit from her tailor before heading out on vacation.

“I went to pick it up cause I’m going on vacation tomorrow and it came like this, right? Full glam,” Henry said in the video, referring to the clear plastic bag covering her altered garment.

Henry explained that, as she was walking to her car, carrying the bikini, she noticed a woman approaching her. “I thought this could go one of two ways,” Henry said. “Either she’s gonna come and say ‘Oh, this is really cute’ or it could just go downhill, right?”

“I told myself, ‘Gerlyn just just be cool,’ and she comes up to me and she says, ‘Are you a priest or pastor?'”

After Henry confirmed that she was a priest, the woman responded, “I didn’t know you could wear that,” referring to the swimsuit and expressing surprise that a member of the clergy could wear a bikini.

In response, Henry said she gave the woman an “out.”

“I chose to say, ‘Oh, you know we don’t really have anything that we can or cannot wear.'”

The woman, however, doubled down according to Henry, saying, “Well, modesty is a virtue.”

Henry managed to shoot back with a little bit of humor, asking the woman, “Would you rather I go to a nude beach?”

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE about the viral video, Henry responded to the mixed reactions she has received since recounting the story online.

“I doubt most people experience their priests as sassy, so when they see a priest being a little sassy online, they think, ‘Wait, they’re not supposed to do that'” she says. “I think priests are always expected to be good and kind, but that doesn’t always mean niceness and politeness,” Henry explains of her response.

According to Henry, the woman concluded the exchange by saying, “I’m never gonna come to your church.”

At the end of her video, Henry offered a candid and light-hearted reflection on the interaction.

“So first of all, lady, I’m really embarrassed by this encounter, right?” she said in the clip. “Do I wish my seamstress put [the bikini] in a little brown bag so that nobody ever saw it? Yes, yes, right? But if you ever came to my church, I would be just as embarrassed as I am right now.”

Henry tells PEOPLE that she wasn’t surprised by the woman’s reaction, and that, as a priest, she has even had similar encounters before.

“People who make comments like this are most likely already part of a church, and that’s where they get the confidence to speak like this,” Henry says of her experiences. “I think if this was just a stranger who’s just curious, I would have been more open to a fruitful discussion. But this is a very familiar conversation where it’s someone who is already faithful and is sharing their faithfulness, and the way they understand it with someone else.”

Henry also points out what she interprets as a broader misunderstanding around scripture as an explanation for the interaction, especially when it comes to the idea of modesty.

https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf

“Sometimes, when we hear scriptural passages or passages that seem like they’re from scripture so often, we don’t realize where exactly they come from, or the context that they’re written in,” she says, going on to clarify that the verses people most often think of when referencing modesty actually refer to the idea of being modest in displaying one’s wealth, not necessarily their body.

“Of course, it’s important to teach women, especially young women and young men, to love and respect your bodies, which I think hasn’t been a message of the church for so long,” Henry says. “But how do you use that message and remind them that kind of messaging isn’t about a bikini, it’s about how much you care and care for yourself?”

As a married, female priest who makes social media content, Henry understands that she might not be the stereotypical image people have in their heads of what a clergy member should be.

“My supervisor at the time, because it was COVID, I didn’t see anybody else except me and him,” she says. “He was an older Englishman and had the most poised life ever. He made no mistakes. He was just so perfect. I felt like I was so different than him; I was messier and I was funnier and quirkier.”

She started her TikTok five years ago, as a new priest, to offer a “counter-narrative” to that “perfect image of priesthood,” and to offer a different, more human perspective on what it means to be in her role.

“I thought it was also important for [the] online sphere to hear some progressive ideas about Christianity,” she says.

Not everyone appreciated her approach, however, and for months, she found herself on the “wrong side of the algorithm,” her comments sections flooded with negativity.

“And then I realized that, like, I’m taking it too seriously, so I started responding to some of my hate comments with fun and energetic responses,” in order to help people realize she is a person with feelings as well.

In one TikTok video, Henry says that “one of the draws of [her page] is that it demystifies the Church and demystifies clergy. We are just real people with some strong opinions who love God.”

Read the original article on People