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Red Dress Day is held every year on May 5th in Canada. It is a national day of remembrance for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirited People (MMIWG2S+). To honor those who have been lost, we hang red dresses in trees, on front porches or in windows or wear red dress pins.
There are a number of activism events throughout the country to raise awareness. To learn more you can visit the Amnesty International website by CLICKING HERE.
To read the CBC News article 'Here's how the 15th Red Dress Day is being marked in B.C., CLICK HERE.
In our diocese of islands and inlets we offer this prayer which has been adapted from resources for this day produced for the Anglican Church of Canada for Murdered and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People:
Creator, we give you thanks for all you are and all you bring to us for our visit within your creation.
For many their visit to your creation ended through violence and we don’t know where they currently lay.
In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the Centre of this Sacred Circle through all of which all creation is related.
We remember those Missing and Murdered Women and Girls and Two Spirited People who suffered.
We take time to remember they are Our Relations, as all creation is related.
We remember their family members and friends and the heaviness of loss and grief that they have carried for so many years.
Creator, in Jesus, you showed us the way to live a generous and compassionate life.
Give us your strength to live together with respect, care for one another and commit ourselves to providing safety for all.
May we grow in your spirit, and support all our relations, for you are God, now and forever. Amen.
A photo from the House of Bishops this past month in recognition of MMIWG@S+.
