"I am proud of our heritage as a powerhouse of prayer."- A Blog

Reverend Emma Rees-Kenny, Ministry Area Leader in Caerphilly and Aber Valley reflects on the Mothers' Union's RiseUP Campaign.

Two white letters on a dark blue background are all I need to take me back to a place in my childhood where I was incredibly happy.

It’s the mid 80s, there’s a ground floor flat in a 3 story building opposite the local church. Inside it is a place of love, security and female empowerment. It is the kingdom of a proper, Welsh valley matriarch – my grandma Bess.

I’m told that there were times when her life was tough – like many young women of the war years, she was forced to make sacrifices, make the best of what little she had and to ‘make do and mend’.

By the time I came along she was a divorcee and a remarried one at that - Both scandalous in the church in the 70s.

I remember hearing a story about how, as a divorced woman, for a time, she was refused the sacrament – the bread and wine – the body and blood of Jesus. That which makes us whole, that which none of us are worthy but all of us are welcome.

Week after week, she would turn up at church. Listen to and take part in the service, right up until communion. Every week she would apparently take her turn to stand at the altar and accept a priest’s blessing.

As a woman I cannot imagine the sheer grit and determination it must have taken for her to go back week after week (or the hurt and pain it caused). As a priest I cannot comprehend what it must have felt like to turn her away from the real presence of Jesus Christ, the gift of grace so freely given.

Denied her place at the Eucharist, membership of Mothers’ Union was also revoked from her. I can’t imagine her pain – the pain of being labelled a failure, or ‘less than’ by the very people who were meant to be in her support network, her ‘people’.

By the 80’s of my childhood, sat pride of place on the bookshelf above her chair was a porcelain disc of the deepest blue with the letters MU emblazoned on it.

Embraced by a church with a growing and deepening understanding for pastoral care at the point of need and societal change, she was welcomed back into the sisterhood that she loved, and church and the Mothers’ Union were big parts of her life and big parts of the memories she left for me

I’m told I’m a lot like her…. I’m not sure that is always meant as the compliment that I take it for - push my luck and my dad can sometimes still be heard calling me ‘Bessie Maud’ rather than Emma Louise (my mother’s preference for when I’m being troublesome!)

As the granddaughter and daughter of lifelong Mothers’ Union members, as a Mothers’ Union member, mother and disciple I am proud of our heritage as a powerhouse of prayer.

Need something done? The Mothers’ Union will do it.

Need someone taken care of? The Mothers’ Union will sort it.

Need someone prayed for? Done.

In promoting the welfare of children and family life, the Mothers’ Union across the globe has radically changed the lives of millions and it is with great enthusiasm I support its latest, national campaign – Rise Up, a campaign to promote awareness against domestic abuse.

The simple truth is that none of us know what goes on behind closed doors. It is easy for us all to think that ‘that’ doesn’t happen ‘here’, but back in September we put up help line numbers in each of the toilets in our churches and hall. The hope was that maybe just one person might find help they needed from a telephone number on a toilet door.

I don’t have the vocabulary to explain my feelings when I saw that first pull tab torn away.

Imagine, someone might have slept safer tonight because of a piece of paper on the back of a toilet door.

As a Ministry Area we are committed to supporting our Mothers’ Union campaign to raise awareness - to shout out as loud as we can ‘there is help out there if you need it’ to as many people as we can, in the simple hope of a better tomorrow.

As Caerphilly & Aber Valley Mothers’ Union we are proud to be Bronze Award recipients of this campaign, and we are committed to praying regularly for victims of domestic abuse across the world. As strong advocates of human dignity, we pledge to make the telephone number for the national domestic abuse hotline available as often as we can, on as many of our correspondents as we can.

As part of our Harvest offerings we will be making a financial contribution to the work of Llamau here in Caerphilly and Aber Valley and working not just towards a Gold Award but towards a world where human dignity matters. To imagine a world that is safer for those at risk because our voices of influence had the bravery to speak into a situation that the world deems ‘private’, ‘unseemly’ or none of our business…..

Were Grandma not among the saints of heaven today, I can clearly imagine her, lecturing us all on how we should be supporting this campaign. Poster in her front window with the national helpline number in big letters, making everyone pay extra for their Sunday morning coffee to send something off to charity and volunteering my beloved and insanely patient grandfather for everything under the sun!

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying “whom shall I send? And who will go for us” and I said “Here I am. Send me”. Isaiah 6.8

Welsh Women’s Aid 0808 80 10 800

National Domestic Abuse Hotline 0808 2000 247