THERE can be very few campaigns to better the lives of women and children which the Mothers’ Union (MU) has not had a hand in over the 150 years of its existence. Its four million members in more than 80 countries are celebrating this year’s anniversary and the fact that its Christian motivation appears to be as strong as ever.
In common with many volunteer-led organisations, the MU’s demographic is an ageing one, but Steph Nunn, its director of membership for the UK and Ireland, is upbeat. “We live in our communities and we work in our communities. We know there’s an appetite among younger Christians and younger people to get involved in some kind of volunteer network,” she says. She believes that the charity is “the right vehicle”.
The MU’s four main programmes in Britain and Ireland focus on domestic abuse, modern slavery, Away From It All (AFIA) holidays for struggling families, and prisons. “We are often accused of hiding our light under a bushel,” Ms Nunn says. “When you really evaluate the work our members are doing, it’s really quite extraordinary.”
Mary Sumner, the MU’s founder, had an idyllic childhood as the daughter of a wealthy banker, and a long and a happy marriage to a clergyman, who became the Bishop of Guildford. But her comfortable situation did not blind her to the hard lives of labouring families in the parish.
At a time when class distinction was marked, her ambition was to bring rich and poor mothers together, to support one another in raising families in the faith. The birth of her first child had had a profound influence on her. “I felt that mothers had one of the greatest and most important professions in the world and yet there was none had so poor a training for its supreme duties,” she wrote.
She founded a local Mothers’ Union in 1876, with “lady members”, who paid a subscription and had to be communicant members of the Church of England, and non-subscribing working women members — “poor sisters” — who didn’t. A landmark speech to working women at the Church Congress in Portsmouth in 1885 was the trigger for expanding the movement to diocesan, national, and then international levels. “Those that rock the cradle rule the world,” she told them.
The Mothers’ Union was outspoken in the interests of women. It publicly celebrated suffrage in 1918, declaring, “The vote is the duty we owe to humankind — a responsibility laid on us by God . . . It is not a privilege conferred on us by men, for have not the women of this generation earned it?”
THE movement’s tenacious campaigning has continued to gather strength since Sumner’s death in 1921. Early involvement included the crucial campaign to raise the legal age of marriage to 16, resulting in the Age of Marriage Act 1929; joining other women’s organisations to influence post-war housing; fierce lobbying to pass the Family Allowance Act in 1945, which transferred payments directly to mothers; calling for an increase in the Widow’s Allowance earnings limit, in the 1960s; and launching its AFIA campaign to provide holidays for families in need.
Mothers’ UnionMothers’ Union members marching from the Young Wives’ Rally, October 1952
With growing reach — it had its first overseas branches as early as 1886 — it was able to be a voice of influence at a higher level. In 2000, it gained consultative status at the UN on poverty, gender equality, and HIV/AIDS. In 2003, it was invited to nominate a member representative to the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) advisory committee, advising on the age and appropriateness of video games — a position it has held ever since. It was involved in the Jubilee Debt campaign (now Debt Justice) and the Make Poverty History movement in 2005. In 2006, it led a longstanding campaign for the right to request flexible working arrangements for all parents, and its advocacy was instrumental in the passage of the Work and Families Act 2006, a milestone in UK employment law.
In 2010, it launched its own Bye Buy Childhood campaign to value and protect children from exploitative marketing and it also played a hands-on part in the Sanctuary Pledge Movement for welcoming refugees. In 2014, it contributed to the broader policy environment, informing the Children and Families Act 2014, which focused on issues such as the sexualisation of children and child welfare. It produced its own report and lobbied via MPs and Government consultations.
Bev Jullien has been the chief executive of the MU since 2015 and will retire this month. In 2017, the movement launched a global listening process, MULOA (Mothers’ Union Listens, Observes and Acts), resulting in the revision of its constitution to modernise and reflect the increasingly global nature of the movement. In 2019, it held its first Worldwide Council outside the UK in Kigali, Rwanda.
Ms Jullien has steered the organisation through one of its most critical times, the Covid pandemic and its aftermath, 40-strong central staff were reduced to 25, and an appeal raised £1 million. “That was really tough, emotionally and organisationally,” Ms Jullien says. But it forced the MU to “focus on what the most important things were and we steadily and intentionally rebuilt for the world of the future”.
The pandemic also pushed the MU into new technologies. “The Mothers’ Union is a very relational movement, very face-to-face, but when we couldn’t use our established practices, we moved into the Zoom age,” she says. This has resulted in better governance and communications, she continues, and the act of moving the daily midday prayers that have been said all over the world for years online has strengthened fellowship across the globe.
AT HOME, the MU continues to campaign against domestic abuse and gender-based violence, and the challenges of the internet space. Abroad, in struggling communities such as in Malawi and Myanmar, it is described as “the backbone, the hands, feet and heart of the Anglican Church”. Ms Jullien, a lay canon of St Albans, says: “It provides a very safe and joyful space for women to grow their faith and feel safe and secure — and, on the back of that, to reach out and face the challenges.
“It’s really being able to be an informed Christian female voice into the issues of our time. We work with others when appropriate because we recognise we are stronger together and we will partner with whoever is equally passionate in that space.
“We’ve been referred to as ‘the stone in the shoe’. We’re not frightened of speaking up and having a strong voice. Sometimes it means being very up front and other times it’s about engaging the relevant stakeholders and helping them understand why the change we’re asking for is so important — for instance, in issues of quite horrific gender-based violence in conflict zones like South Sudan, when we’d go to the elders, husband and wife together, to explain why such practices are not OK.
“The emphasis will vary country by country, but the fundamental issues are common — ending injustice and violence and creating a safe environment in which all can thrive, providing tools and resources to help communities.”
ACTIVITIES have evolved. “Our holidays started off as just caravan holidays,” says Ms Nunn, adding that the MU is now working in schools. “We’re doing day trips and Christian retreats,” she says. “The activities are based on what’s happening in today’s society. Our strapline for this year is Join Us, Join In. There’s a little swelling already in cathedrals, for example, and branches with younger people. Fellowship and a deep faith is essential for a majority of our members but we’re not an exclusive organisation, nor should we be.”
The MU is in almost every diocese in England, Ireland and Wales. Celebrations are taking place worldwide throughout the year and throughout the country, including the 150th birthday service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday, over which the Archbishop of Canterbury was due to preside. Every diocese has been invited to welcome 150 new members this year — “an aspiration, not a requirement,” the MU emphasises.
Mothers’ UnionThe launch of RISE UP including a march from York Barbican to York Minster, 22 September 2023
When interviewed on Mothering Sunday, as part of a 150th anniversary BBC Songs of Praise, Sue Rivers, provincial president for Wales, was asked what Mary Sumner might think of the Mothers’ Union today. “I believe she’d be thrilled we are still serving God in our communities, responding to need as Christ’s hands and feet,” she said.
“Mothering is not limited to biological mothers alone. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience are gifts shared by many people in children’s lives, from fathers and teachers, foster parents, friends and community members. The loving craft of mothering has immeasurable value across the world and sits at the very heart of Mothers’ Union’s aims and objectives.”