24.11.2025
Mothers’ Union in North Strand Celebrates 130th Anniversary
One hundred and thirty years of Mothers’ Union in North Strand was celebrated yesterday (Sunday November 23) with members of the parish branch joined by friends from far and wide.
Archbishop Michael Jackson presided and preached at the service of Evening Prayer and Thanksgiving in North Strand Church which was celebrated by the Rector, Canon Garth Bunting, in the presence of the Diocesan MU Chaplain, the Revd Colin McConaghie and Canon Prof Anne Lodge.
All Ireland President, Kay Clarke, was in attendance along with Diocesan President, Ada Lawson and many Mothers’ Union members from around the dioceses. Former parishioner and retired Archbishop of Armagh, the Rt Revd Richard Clarke was in attendance along with Fr Colin Mary and Fr Peter from the nearby Fairview Parish.
The first Mothers’ Union meeting took place in North Strand on November 21 1895 and the strong tradition continues today in the parish of Drumcondra, North Strand and St Barnabas.
The history of Mothers’ Union in North Strand was outlined by the Archbishop in his sermon. He noted that the first meeting of the branch began at 8pm, a time set explicitly for the benefit of working women. “This, in itself, is significant since, through this briefest of references, it tells us something interesting about this parish one hundred and thirty years ago: women worked because they had to work but they still wanted to make time to meet God under God as Members of the Mothers’ Union. It asks a further question: How does Mothers’ Union respond effectively to this desire in a changed and a different world now?” he said.
Records show that the branch’s theme for 1899 was: ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. The quotation from Joshua 24: 15, Archbishop Jackson suggested, expressed something intrinsic to the ethic of Mothers’ Union, that it is a generational and family–wide decision to follow the Lord. He said that the church of today could hear anew the call to turn away from other gods – in an era of technological convenience and virtual access – and Mothers’ Union could explore the theme of 1899 afresh today considering what it is to be a serving household.
Between 1907, when membership stood at 134, and 1943 the North Strand branch was the largest in the diocese. The Archbishop suggested that the reason for the MU’s success was what drove the ethic of the organisation: service, simplicity and society. These are all underpinned by Scripture.
“One of the most relevant questions we can ask on an evening when we mark one hundred and thirty years of one Branch of the Mother’s Union is this: Why is it important to live a Scriptural life? It is because we are children of God, signed and sealed in our baptism in a particular and Christ–like way as members of the Body of Christ,” he stated.
The Archbishop continued: “It is because we are invited to pattern ourselves on the same Christ not least, in a Mothers’ Union context, in how we live out and in how we interpret for others what it is to be a home and what it is to have a home and what it is to share a home. It is because we are equipped to live a spiritual life on earth as it is in heaven in response to the healing, teaching and preaching ministry of Jesus Christ as disciples of today. This too is mission – locally. This is to be lived out in the community of society and in the life of parish. Fresh opportunities always lie before us. Fresh opportunities always lie within us. Somehow it is beginning to sound rather like The Kingdom of God”.
Following the service the congregation was invited to the neighbouring North Strand Infant School where refreshments were served and a special celebratory cake was cut by North Strand member Jill Holmes and enrolling officer Anne Mercer.
You can read the Archbishop’s sermon in full here.
