Sermon by Patti Pettigrew and Lynn Harrison.

First Unitarian is honoured to welcome once again Patti Pettigrew, the Executive Director of Thunder Woman Healing Lodge Society (pictured). She will update us on TWHLS’s urgent and essential work, supporting Indigenous women after involvement with the justice system and reconnecting them with their culture, spirituality and communities.

Over the past several years, First Unitarian has been developing a close relationship with TWHLS, Ontario’s first Indigenous owned and led healing lodge for Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ women, now looking ahead to its new six-storey lodge at 2217 Kingston Road in Scarborough. This Sunday we deepen our connection, with the opportunity also to provide much-needed financial support. /p>

As we look ahead to International Women’s Day on Tuesday, March 8th, we recognize that Indigenous women experience disproportionate levels of violence and are over-represented in the prison system. On Sunday, we have the valuable opportunity to listen, learn, and deepen in our allyship./p>

An advocate for vulnerable Indigenous women for over forty years, Patti Pettigrew is a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation in North-Eastern Ontario. Please join us in welcoming her to First Unitarian once again, this Sunday.

In faith and love,
Lynn