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Meet the Local Team

Welcome to our Website

Welcome to a Website

With YOU in mind, Mothers’ Union Newcastle has updated its website with resources, local news about our projects and the initiatives we support, and information from MU world-wide.

So, welcome to www.munewcastle.org.uk
…a website to inform people about Mothers’ Union,
…a website through which MU members can share news and resources.

The WWW… World: Those of us who grew up before 1990 did so without any knowledge of the world-wide-web. We managed pretty well without it! Those who are under 40 cannot imagine life without it. In fact it is now almost impossible to survive without access to the internet.
Invented in 1989 as a way to help scientists to research share information rapidly, it soon became a commercial asset and a new way of shopping. We have become accustomed to its amazing benefits and sometimes undervalue the work which goes into creating a website. WWW… is our passport to information, news, resources and answers to questions.

New to MU? If you don’t know much about Mothers’ Union, we hope you will find the information interesting. Do get in touch if you have any questions.

A member of MU? We hope you will enjoy keeping up to date with news and events and find the resources material helpful. Please send in photographs and brief accounts of the events and projects your local branch is engaged with.

Parish based? Make sure MU is linked to your parish church website.

News to share? Send to: Web Administrator or to your Vice-President.   

One more step along the world we go…
From the old we travel to the new…
Keep us travelling along with you.

Thanksgiving for Past Members

A Thanksgiving for Past Members

Mothers’ Union in Newcastle Diocese devotes this page in thankful remembrance of members whose service in this world is ended.

For all who have committed their lives in prayer and action through Mothers’ Union, we are thankful.

For the years of service given and the time they devoted, we are thankful.

For their giftedness shared with others, we are thankful.

For the ways in which their lives have helped to shape our own,

we are deeply thankful.

(To read Obituary click on the word Obituary )

2024 Spring/Summer

Frances Bromham Previous Diocesan Vice President with Brenda Mennear.

Josephine Kulke -Bedlington Deanery Leader

Molly Frost – Killngworth branch.

Audrey Henderson – Holy Saviour, Tynemouth

Adrian Allen -Treasurer St Johns Whorlton

2023 Autumn/Winter

Maisie Luke -Warkworth 

June Olliver – Hexham branch. Former V-P of Lindisfarne (Obituary) 

Sonia Downing - Gosforth

Brenda Mennear – Cullercoats, past Indoor Members’ rep

Phyllis Postma - Haltwhistle

Sheila Horn – Monkseaton, recent Branch Leader

Odette Walker - St. Peter’s, Monkseaton

Joan Waddle - Newsham, St. Bede

Ruth Hallowell – Morpeth, aged 100

Una Peel - St Bede’s, Newsham

Jane Weedy – St Bede;s, Newsham

Doris Glendinning - Humshaugh

Mary Cummings – St Andrew, Cambois

Elaine Cordingley - St. Cuthbert’s, Amble

Joan Bell -Holy Cross Fenham

Jean Johnson - St. Gabriel’s, Heaton

Margaret Campbell - St Mary’s, Monkseaton

May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace and rise in glory.

History of Newcastle Mothers' Union

Mothers Union, Newcastle Diocese & Cathedral: partners for 140 years.

Newcastle Diocese was founded in 1882 out of Durham Diocese, the same decade that Mothers Union became established across the nation. Newcastle was the first Diocese after Winchester to adopt Mothers Union. The first President was Mrs Emily Wilberforce, wife of the bishop.More recently MU Presidents have been made Lay Canons of the Cathedral.

Mothers’ Union was founded in 1876 by Mary Sumner in Old Arlesford Parish, Winchester Diocese, where her husband was Rector. The first MU meeting in Northumberland was in Embleton in 1879, led by Louise Creighton, the wife of the vicar, Revd Mandell Creighton, who went on to become Bishop of London.

The first Bishop of Newcastle, Rt Revd Ernest Wilberforce, was deeply impressed by shy Mary Sumner’s ministry with mothers and persuaded her to speak about her Mothers’ Meetings at a church congress in Portsmouth in 1885. She spoke passionately about national morality and the importance of women’s vocation as mothers to change the nation for the better. As a result many delegates set up Mothers Meetings. By 1900 membership across the UK reached 169,000 and by 1921 there were 400,000 members worldwide.

Queen Victoria offered her royal patronage to MU in her Diamond Jubilee Year 1897. HM Queen Elizabeth ll is its current Patron. In 2000 the United Nations gave Mothers Union consultative status within its Economic and Social Council on issues such as poverty, gender equality, HIV and AIDS.

Mary Sumner’s vision was radical and pioneering in its day, calling upon women of all social classes to support one another and to see motherhood as a profession as important as those of men. Branches and activities are parish based, with elected trustees across the Diocese. Despite their name, Mothers’ Union is an inclusive organisation with many men as members.

Rooted in prayer and action, members believe that prayer is transformational and supports their work around the world. Their daily midday prayer focuses on their projects, locally and world-wide. Midday Prayers in the Cathedral are led by Mothers’ Union members every first Thursday of the month.  In recent years, Mothers’ Union Presidents have been made honorary canons of the Cathedral.

Mothers’ Union Banners and information can be found in the Cathedral’s Chapel of the Resurrection. The new Diocesan Banner, with its modern portrayal of mother and child, replaced the original, which was burned accidentally. It was designed and made by Mrs Edith Coulton, wife of a former Dean the Very Revd Nicholas Coulton (2001-2003). 

Mothers’ Union Worldwide Projects include supportive work with prisons, refuges, survivors of domestic or gender abuse, community crafts, families in adversity, advocacy and campaigns, literacy and numeracy programmes.

Newcastle branches have many ongoing local projects supporting families in need, including people in hospital, ‘Away From It All’ holidays for struggling families, reading books for young children, help for women in refuges, support for homeless people and asylum seekers and ‘Fresh Start’ packs for those leaving prison.

More information can be found on the MU national website. www.mothersunion.org 

A PDF is available to download here

PAST PRESIDENTS

Click to see a PDF of the framed calligraphy which once hung in the Cathedral

Mothers Union Project Work in the Diocese of Newcastle

MU members contribute through their subscriptions to life-giving projects nationally and internationally. These include Literacy Programmes, Prison work, Refuges for victims of domestic violence, Support for refugees, Community Development and Skills Programmes, Schools support for poor families and Business classes to equip women to make a living.
MU works with United Nations to campaign against Gender-based violence and other injustices.

Members and friends of MU in Newcastle Diocese also support many local people in need through a variety of initiatives. As a charity we are not able to give funds to other charities or initiatives, but we can provide practical support and much needed provisions. If you can help in any way, or have helpful ideas, please contact your local MU branch leader, or contact the MU Action & Outreach Co-ordinator: Revd Diana Macnaughton: Tel  or Email

Some local initiatives supported by MU members in recent years
People’s Kitchen. MU members make up Christmas gift bags of warm clothing and toiletries for the People’s kitchen to distribute to homeless women and men at Christmas.
Changing Lives. Runs a GAP hostel (Girls Are Proud) for vulnerable young women. MU donates gifts bags at Christmas time.
Ukranian and Syrian refugees. Young mothers arrive with little warm clothing. MU lends support with warm clothes, boxes of essentials for new-born babies and food hampers.
Cathedral Link. Members are knitting Baptism shawls for the Cathedral to give to refugee families. MU is also designing and making kneelers for the Chapel of the Ascension, and have knitted twenty ‘M-Ewes’ for their story-telling groups during St Oswald’s Hospice ‘Shaun the Sheep’ campaign.

Walking With supports asylum seekers. MU has donated bedding, toiletries, clothes, & toys.
Refuges. MU branches support several local refuges. Families arrive with very few personal possessions and MU helps to provide underwear, sleepwear and toiletries. Christmas lunch has been provided for some. Also help towards a sensory room for traumatised children.
Fresh Start. Many ex-offenders are without homes to go to when they are released from HM Prison Northumberland. MU members provide them with a back-pack of essential items such as toiletries, underwear, T shirt, warm joggers and fleece, hat and gloves.
Fishermen's Mission North Shields. MU provides items such as hats, wellies and gloves.
AFIA (Away From It All). MU in Newcastle organise caravan holidays for families who are unable to afford a life-giving break away. These are greatly valued.
Hospital Emergency Bags are provided across the region with overnight essentials for those who arrive with nothing.
Green Canopy. MU planted a tree at Howick Hall to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
 

Newcastle MU Choir

Our MU Choir is led by Lesley Wright. This is an open-access unauditioned choir and ability to read music while useful isn’t essential.

"It was lovely to be asked as a choir to lead some music at the Eucharist in the Cathedral on 7 December marking 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence.  Sadly some of those who had hoped to sing weren’t available but five of us, Barbara Packer, Dorothy Frankland, Jenny Germain and Marion Mullen joined me; we rehearsed in St Francis Heaton, as our usual rehearsal space in St Nicholas Gosforth wasn’t free, and I was very relieved on the day when the five of us assembled in the Cathedral before Midday Prayers.  We sang the hymn A Touching Place and three chants, all from the Iona Community.  I hope those to whom the hymn was new were as moved by its words as I am every time I sing it."

Lesley Wright