The parish priest in the online pulpit
Scarborough-based reverend Gerlyn Henry uses social media to reach millions with a progressive Christianity, addressing church hurt and politics.
“I can’t be a coward at the pulpit.”
These words, coming from Gerlyn Henry’s supervisor on the heels of the January 6th insurrection in 2021, changed Henry’s perspective on ministry.
At the time, Henry was working as an assistant priest at a church in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. New to preaching and unable to connect with her parish because of covid, she did what many of us did during the pandemic: she turned to social media.
“I started a TikTok account to capture what it felt like to be a young woman of colour in a pretty institutionalized, colonial old church,” Henry told Christian Courier (CC). Her content quickly evolved into what she calls “a slightly more progressive expression of being Anglican” as she began to respond to the political events sweeping the news headlines.
Now, five years later, still with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Henry serves as a Reverend at Holy Wisdom in Scarborough, Ontario. Alongside her full-time duties, she continues to make online content for several thousand followers across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. She is well-known in online progressive circles for her upbeat, relevant content that makes Christianity accessible in a bite-size video format.
Find Rev. Gerlyn Henry on social media
Instagram and Facebook: gerlynhenry
TikTok: rev.gerlynhenry
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@gerlynhenry
Three focuses
Currently, Henry’s online content focuses on advocacy for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, support for Palestine and critique of American Christian nationalism.
Henry explains: “All of those three things are fueled by Christian doctrine. I think there is a need to reclaim our scriptures, reclaim our theologies so that we can offer . . . the ancient and traditional version of Jesus, a version that is liberating, inclusive and welcoming of those in the margins.”
As an Anglican, Henry belongs to a ritual tradition of sacraments, seeking the mystery of God through ordinary life. This is a practice she applies to her work online, where she meets her audience in “the ordinary messiness of their complex current realities” and makes theology accessible.
Part of Henry’s method of making theology accessible is telling radical truths and humanizing people while still bringing a hopeful levity to her content. Telling the truth about Jesus’ all-encompassing love without “necessarily raging” is a counter voice to the algorithm, which capitalizes on anger. “To be online,” she explains, “to say these radical truths in order to humanize the people that the world is currently dehumanizing . . . demystifies the church and makes the prophetic voice of the church more accessible.”
Among Henry’s audience are folks with scars cut by faith institutions, people disenchanted by religion and those asking how Christians are addressing the world’s problems. Henry hears their feedback and empathizes with their skepticism and pain.
“The church is a deeply painful space for so many people,” she says. “Even within the church, for those who are ordained, especially for Indigenous people and queer pastors, serving in this institution is deeply painful. There are very few people who have ever said, ‘Hey, I came across this video and it was traumatizing to see you.’ So many more have said, ‘I’m never gonna step into church again, but this has been really healing.’”
The emotional toll
Henry’s online work comes at an emotional cost; she admits that she frequently gets her feelings hurt. Recently, she expanded her platform to Facebook, where she was met with videos made in response to her content, including rude remarks and racist depictions of her.
Sometimes disgruntled viewers leave comments on her videos accusing her of heresy. In these moments, Henry recalls her first theological class in seminary, when her professor told her and her classmates that they are heretics, and that this isn’t a bad thing: the root Greek word haíresis means “to choose” or to fracture from the dominant understanding.
Henry says, “One of the things I do when someone calls me a heretic is to remember, ‘this is a fracturing, and now you and I are in a relationship. You’re upholding a system of values, and I am gently poking you.’”
Being called a heretic isn’t the worst thing she’s experienced as a result of her social media. Earlier in the year she was doxxed, and her personal information was shared online. For weeks she had to deal with hate mail, threats and once, an angry person showing up on her doorstep.
“I remember thinking, is this worth it? Should I just take a break or stop altogether?” she recalls. When she spoke with her bishop about it, he reminded her that ministry always includes a risk. Henry ensures that her parish knows the risk, too. To preserve their safety, she tries to never include her church members in her online work, and to make it clear that all her opinions are her opinions; they don’t represent the Anglican Diocese of Toronto.
Internet vs. reality
In all of this, Henry’s first priority remains her church community, although there’s a bit of whiplash for her as she moves between church and social media. Five to ten million people view her content in an average week; around one hundred people attend her church on an average Sunday morning.
“I recognize that on a Monday morning, I can have hundreds of thousands of people see me do something online,” she says, “but then on Monday afternoon, I am with a small group of people. I’m beside someone’s bedside praying with them through healing or through a funeral or working with them through marriage. There’s something profoundly incarnational about being a parish priest, and that is my first vocation. I love being online, I love public theology, but I’m called to be in this space with these people.”
The difference between a church member and an Instagram follower is that one made the choice to show up, while the other didn’t have to choose; the algorithm did for them. But Henry says that “if we continue to pursue all those millions of people coming to church as the only measure of success, then we’re failing to understand what God is doing in digital space.”
Two Priests and Palestine
In December 2025, Henry travelled to Palestine on a Solidarity Pilgrimage with nine other clergy from the Anglican Diocese of Toronto.
The theme of the pilgrimage was “come and see; go and tell.” Henry took this message to heart: after arriving back in Canada, she created an online series about Palestine and the Israeli occupation. The 15 videos in the series received over three million views across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Once the series was finished, Henry and her colleague Reverend Jeff Nowers started a podcast called Two Priests and Palestine, which launched on May 24, 2026. Henry says, “The hope of the podcast is for people to humanize what they see on TV in regards to Palestine and to hear firsthand from Palestinians what pursuit of liberation and peace in the Holy Land looks like.”
You can listen to Two Priests and Palestine on podcast streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music.
