Pakefield Church’s Mothers’ Union meets from 2.00 – 3.30pm in the Church Hall on the third Thursday of each month. They are a friendly group of ladies (although men may also join).  They also host and lead the Living for Life course that we run as part of our marriage preparation course.  

PAKEFIELD MOTHERS’ UNION – PAKEFIELD BRANCH

Members Jenny and Bea attended the invitation from the Bradwell Branch to a special anniversary meeting their branch was celebrating. The Very Revd. Dr Andrew Braddock was the speaker, he is the Rural Dean of Norwich Cathedral installed in January 2023. His duties are many; assisting the bishop, care of the deanery and staff and much more, explaining what these duties involved. Next, he challenged members to the answers to many questions, such as – how many visitors the cathedral has each year, how many bosses (of the architectural kind) there are throughout the cathedral, how many services are held each day or the year come to that? All this delivered with a gentle sense of humour much enjoyed by his audience.

On the 19th March, Committee members arranged lunch in the hall for couples getting married in our church this year and, in the church, they had the opportunity to listen to a variety of appropriate organ music, the choir sang, flower arrangements were discussed and Rev. Sharon run through the ceremony and a workshop. Member Sue provided tea and coffee refreshments throughout.

March is a busy month; the Spring Equinox, Mothering Sunday, Ash Wednesday, beginning of Lent, and Lady Day (quarter day). It was appropriate, therefore, that Ticia led with the latter choosing relevant hymns and a reading from the Gospel of Luke. She continued with the story of our founder, Mary Sumner. As a child and teenager, Mary lived in the village of Colwall at the foot of the Malvern Hills. She had a happy childhood, her mother was a lover of art and music and was deeply religious, her father too was a great influence in her life. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that the seeds were sown in Mary’s mind which would grow and flourish into the concept of Mothers’ Union that exists worldwide today. Mary married at St James’ church, Colwall, and moved to Old Alresford where her husband was a rector and where the first MU meeting was held in 1876 for women who perhaps felt isolated bringing up families. Ticia was Christened in St James and Glynis lived in Old Alresford!

Approximately once a year we have a social afternoon, we generally play card bingo or, this time, a new version Roz brought along – bird bingo. Sue, a glutton for punishment, was the person in charge calling out the names of the birds from across the world on our sheets, on which we had to place a disc. Again, she struggled to explain the extremely simply rules as most of us weren’t listening/concentrating/chatting for various reasons and thus it developed into the usual chaos that ensues on these occasions. However, having had tea and biscuits we were able to calm down to join hands and end our meeting with the Blessing.

We meet again April 17th, which will include the Easter raffle and probably hot cross buns.