Mothers’ Union conference in Australia - 2008

report by Primrose Gallimore, Diocesan President.

I went to this conference in March 2008, held at Toowoomba, near Brisbane, Australia. Since nowadays the Mothers’ Union has 100,000 members in the UK and Ireland, but 3.7 million members world wide, it was decided it would be more appropriate to have six regional meetings so that the leaders of various parts of the world (in this case the Pacific rim, but including Canada and the West Indies) could meet together to share experiences, celebrate diversity of cultures, build relationships, identify goals and plan for the future. The conference included five of the staff from Mary Sumner House in London, who facilitated the meeting, and nine Diocesan Presidents from the UK and Ireland, of which I was lucky enough to be one. The Presidents came from South India, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, New Zealand (including a Maori), the West Indies, Tonga, Fiji, Korea, Burma and Australia.

We began the conference with a Eucharist in a large church in Toowoomba. Among those who welcomed us was a local Aboriginal leader as we were in his territory. The service was conducted by the Assistant Bishop of Brisbane.

We had a diversity of cultures, but what was really striking were the similarities – our Christian faith; the knowledge of the Mothers’ Union; the problems we encounter with children and families in our different countries, but also the importance of families and the joy they create. Of course there were differences – in some countries HIV/AIDS was a greater problem. In Melanesia, which is composed of many islands, communication is a real problem – one Diocesan President told me to visit one group of branches she had to walk for eight hours. Some found that affluence can bring its problems. But from the very first day, we had no difficulty in working together with trust and openness, because somehow as we all celebrate Lady Day, all know and pray the Mothers’ Union prayer; have many of the same values and are used to praying for each other, there was an immediate feeling of being part of this great world wide organisation.

For the most part we worked in Friendship groups – each group was composed of a mixture of Diocesan Presidents from different countries and we became very close to each other.

In our group we knew that Ana Mota from Papua New Guinea had a sick daughter, but when she was called home half way through the conference because her daughter had become very ill, many of us shared her tears of sadness when she left.

The work we did included discussion of different social policy issues we were involved in and I got the impression that in countries where NGOs are active, the Mothers’ Union was pretty good at working with them. Also how much lobbying went on in different countries – for example in South Korea the Mothers’ Union not only helps refugees, but tries hard to get permission to send food to starving families in North Korea. We looked at leadership; at the Spirituality of the Mothers’ Union and the affect this had on us; we looked at marketing ourselves. There was also discussion of work that the Diocesan Presidents felt they needed to work on in the future. Some countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK felt work was needed to get more younger members. Melanesia did not have this problem, but felt they needed to work on the commitment of their members.

This is just a taste of the kind of work we did – there is not space to cover it all.

During the conference there was a SPOTLIGHT on each country. Every country was asked to think of two good things they were doing and one problem. I was surprised how similar these were taking into account different circumstances, but perhaps it is not surprising as families the world over do have similar joys and problems.

The Women’s Day of Prayer happened to fall on the last day so it was incorporated in our last Eucharist together. This year the service was compiled by the women of Guyana and we had with us both the Provincial President of the West Indies who happened to come from Guyana, and the Diocesan President of Guyana. They conducted the service and it is difficult to describe the very great feeling of fellowship I felt. It was a privilege to be part of it and I would like to thank all the members in the diocese for the help they gave me to enable me to go and for prayers which upheld and supported me during the journey and the conference.