Justin Welby affirms traditional family values in the face of a changing world

Sep 27, 2016 by Jill

by Justin Welby, Anglican Ink:

There is something remarkably appropriate about the Mothers’ Union picking two readings, one of drama and reliance on the intervention of God. And the other is one of Jesus’s jokes, with a very sharp sting in it. It is appropriate to put these two together because the Mothers’ Union is God-centred in a remarkable way. The Mothers’ Union faces the most extreme odds that cannot be overcome except through the action of God. But also, contrary to the mockery and rumours and jokes aboutthe Mothers’ Union, it is so often a place of humour as well as of prayer, of laughter as well as of spiritual life.

Mary Sumner, of course, started the Mothers’ Union, to support family life. That remains the objective: your aims are summed up succinctly and clearly on your website:

“The focus of Mothers’ Union is on promoting marriage and building stable family life within local communities.

This care is delivered through our three strategic steps as we:

Pray for relationships to be flourishing and loving.
Enable development of all kinds: economic, relational and personal so that family life is strengthened.
Campaign for social justice for those on the margins and for greater recognition of the value of stable family life”.

In the first reading we heard that Samuel set up the Ebenezer….and said “thus far has the Lord helped us”. If we are to understand what God has done for the Mothers’ Union, in what sense today we can after 140 years validly set up an Ebenezer, we must see how far life has come since Mary Sumner started.

Read here

Read also: Welby proves a wolf in shepherd’s clothes as he devalues marriage by the Rev Jules Gomes, TCW