Spirited Reflection: Walking with our Sisters
On October 4 vigils across the country remember and honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and in Toronto, October 15-29, the Walking With Our Sisters commemoration will be held at the Aboriginal Education Centre. Here are two prayers that might be used to lift up these commitments in faith communities.
Grandmother God,
Your loving intention stitched the world into being
You embroidered goodness into the pattern of all creation.
Every plant, every creature, every life reveals Your careful handiwork.
Every injustice rips at the seams of Your design.
Today we mourn Indigenous women and girls, missing and murdered —
so deeply loved by You and remembered in community.
Be with families that wait and grieve.
Be with peoples that name and honour.
Be with communities that seek Your mending justice.
We are Your beautiful and troubled creation,
teach us, restore us, and renew us,
from generation to generation.Amen.
God our Companion
In the desert, You walked with a people
from slavery to liberation;
In the wilderness, You walked with the wild things
from fear to faithfulness;
On the road, you walked with your friends
from confusion to consolation
Remember us now
as we walk with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
and their grieving families.
Walk with us now
in memory
with honour,
and for justice.
We ask this in the name the One we call Brother
and the Spirit we call Sister.Amen.
Jennifer Henry has served as Executive Director of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives since 2012. She has worked in ecumenical social justice for over 20 years, beginning in 1993 when she joined the Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice (ECEJ) as a popular education coordinator.
