New Mothers' Union officers given many thanks and a challenge
Episcopal News Service. January 18, 2007 [011807-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
New officers of the American province of the Mothers' Union, the largest Christian women's voluntary organization in the world, were installed and commissioned January 13 during a service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia.
House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, the Rev. Canon Angela Ifill, the Episcopal Church's Missioner for Black Ministries, and the Rev. Margaret Rose, director of the Church's Office of Women's Ministries, participated in the service.
In the United States, the Mothers' Union ministry began in 1986 with the founding of the first branch in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mazel Medley, according to the group's U.S. website. The organization gradually spread throughout the country, and on January 18, 2003, held the first meeting of its executive membership, officially establishing the Province of the United States of America. There are 11 branches located in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, and Virginia.
Phyllis Gomes succeeds Medley in the president's post. The other officers installed and commissioned during the service were Alice Newstead (first vice president), Darrell Ricketts (second vice president), Hilda Macauley (secretary), Joy Warburton (assistant secretary), Nola Cummings (treasurer), Evelyn Alleyne (assistant treasurer), Eva Johnson (marketing coordinator), Grace Osuagwu (faith and policy coordinator), Monica Green (community resources coordinator) and Sally Jarrett (Link secretary).
Diocese of Virginia Bishop Suffragan David C. Jones presided at the service. Ifill was the preacher and she was introduced by Rose. Anderson presented the officers with a proclamation that expressed her "deepest admiration and thanks" for the work of the Mothers' Union.
"In their steadfast love and perseverance, the Mothers' Union has brought the power of personal prayer, meditation, and religious education in the lives of many people, making each individual known to themselves and others as spiritual beings made in the image of God," her proclamation said in part. "The Mothers' Union provides an example to us all of a reconciled world within our grasp. They have dared to dream the dreams of wholeness, prayed for the realization of those dreams and have asked God to help them daily in their work."
Ifill said during her sermon that society today is fraught with "challenges that give no pause" when it comes to raising children, even more so than when Mary Sumner founded the Mothers' Union in 1876 to support women in their role as mothers.
"Women, my hope is that through your ministry you embrace the young girls today who are not even waiting for marriage at sixteen, but are having babies at 13, and 14 and 15 years of age," she said. "They have not yet fully matured and are still learning to take care of themselves; then they become mothers with a precious, precious human life that looks to them for its needs and they are not ready, many are not capable or have the means to raise a child."
Ifill challenged the women to "save the world by further stretching the mission of the Mothers' Union to embrace these young girls and help support and guide them, make them aware of the responsibility of parenting before they become pregnant" and support those who do become pregnant.
Rose, in introducing Ifill, said that the Women's Ministries office has worked with the Mothers' Union at meetings of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) "in sharing a common commitment to families and children."
"We joined together in working toward what the 2007 UNICEF Report on the State of the World Children calls the double dividend of gender equality and the conviction that equality in the household, in employment, in politics and government contribute immeasurably to healthy and stable families and children," Rose said.
Many of the women whom the Anglican Women's Empowerment (AWE) has helped bring together from around the Anglican Communion to participate in UNCSW meetings are Mothers' Union members "whose work and mission bind us together in God's name," Rose noted.
"In the powerful Mothers' Union statement to the UNCSW in 2006, your organization pointed starkly to the link between gender inequality and uneven development calling on government bodies to join with them in improving health, work conditions and education for women and girls," she said. "The activist work of the Mothers' Union has been impressive and I have been grateful for our connections through the UNCSW and now in the USA as members of the Council of Episcopal Women's Organizations."
(The UNCSW meets again February 26 to March 9, 2007, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City).
Also during the service, a representative from the Mothers' Union province asked Jones to convey an award of appreciation and support to Virginia Bishop Peter Lee.
The Rev. Kim Coleman, rector of Trinity, said in a news release posted on Trinity's website prior to the service that the parish is "encouraged by what God is doing through Mothers' Union to build new bridges with our African brothers and sisters in Christ."
"Our new relationships, grounded in mission, service and our future (i.e., our children) are both promising and uplifting," she said.
The release noted that the members of Trinity's Mothers' Union chapter are predominantly African-born Anglican women from Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria.
Of the Mothers' Union as a whole, the release said: "These members, particularly those in these United States, have found a way to serve God faithfully, sometimes in spite of differences in theological and biblical understandings, by focusing on the undisputed aspiration of extending Christian care to families worldwide."
The Mothers' Union has nearly 3.6 million members in 77 countries of the Anglican Communion. The members financially support emergency relief, education, parenting and marriage enrichment programs in all 77 countries and are committed to helping families in adversity within their own communities and worldwide, according to its website.