Mary Ward Centre Updates

Sr Sarah Rudolph, Audrey Ferrer, and Coco.

In addition to working on a renewal of their Strategic Plan, The Mary Ward Centre has been busy. The broadcast, Storytime with Sr. Sarah: Fun with Birds, was a big hit during Earth Week, with over 1200 registered viewers.

To launch the 10th Anniversary of Laudato Si' Week, they hosted the retreat, Indigenous Wisdom on Care for Creation and the Wisdom Carriers exhibit featuring paintings of Métis Algonquin artist, Diane Montreuil.

Métis Algonquin artist, Diane Montreuil

MWC coop students are finalizing their projects: animating the story of the Irish Loretto Sisters arrival to Toronto; a digital escape room to learn about the Jubilee year; a Faith4SDGs quilt; social media outreach; illustrations for a youth education booklet against human trafficking; as well as a "Green Saints" children’s book.

MWC hosted 'Sisters in Fiction' an event featuring author Jodi Michalachki, who shared excerpts of her novel-in-progress about missionary sisters in Burundi.

The May First Spiritual Exercises Ignatian retreat wrapped up on May 26. There were 8 participants.

During the Week of Victims and Survivors of Crime, 

Mary Ward Centre collaborated with FCJ Refugee Center, and ARISE Ministry | Hope Lives Here to host a 2-day awareness event.

Pieces of the Puzzle - Understanding Exploitation on a Spectrum: a workshop focused on understanding labour exploitation of temporary foreign workers (TFW) in Canada. The Migrant Workers Exercise, a role-play activity, opened the session. Participants had the opportunity to experience the situations TFW experienced from the recruiting stage to their job stage in many Canadian farms. The afternoon activity was a lived-experience panel listening to migrant workers talk about their own experiences and the deception encountered in different industries. 

Pathways to safety - Sex trafficking and the toxic drugs crisis: This workshop focused on analyzing the pathways of sex trafficking and the toxic drug crisis with people working on prevention of human trafficking and drug abuse. Testimonials from survivors and workers supporting victims and survivors served as the basis for the group’s work and analysis.

- By Audrey Ferrer