Mothers’ Day season combines with 'Celebrating Women' events

Churches are preparing for Mothering Sunday on the 19th March as Margam Abbey continues its ‘Celebrating Women Season’ with ‘Liturgy for Women’s Bodily Experiences’.

‘Liturgy for Women’s Bodily Experiences’ will be a women-only space to come together to share, be heard, be honoured, mourn, or give thanks for the bodily experience that women share. Those who attend will be able to acknowledge that God is with us in these experiences and the depth of our spirituality is reflected in our experience which is often at the most significant parts of women’s lives.

Mother Ruth Greenway-Robbins wrote the liturgy in her final year of priesthood training at the St Padarn’s Institute and drew inspiration and knowledge for it from her own experiences of deep personal loss and struggles around child-bearing. The hope is that by offering this liturgy we can begin to examine how women might be able to explore how the church could offer more liturgical expressions for women’s bodily experience in Wales that nourish and sustain us in our spiritually embodied lives.

Then liturgy will take place on Thursday 23rd March at 7pm at Margam Abbey.

Mother Ruth said, “The more I talked with women of all ages, the more I realised that we as a Church are missing a vital connection with women by not connecting with their bodily experiences and their spiritual life. I decided to use my own experience and passion for liturgical embodiment to write my dissertation exploring; “Is it possible to create a practical and usable liturgy that gives voice to the bodily experiences of women in Wales?” I wrote a liturgy using the research that expresses both the joys and sorrows of women’s bodily experiences.”

Read more about Mother Ruth's story behind the Liturgy for Women’s Bodily Experiences

Celebrating the mother church, mother Mary and all the mother figures in our lives; both biological and the chosen, the congregation of Aberaman and Cwmaman will hold their Mothers’ Day mass at 10:30 on Sunday 19th and hand out blessed flowers and Simnel cake to all.

Simnel cake has been eaten since medieval times as both a rich, sweet treat and a symbolic ritual. The fruit cake is topped with eleven marzipan balls to represent the eleven apostles of Christ, minus Judas. Simnel cake is a light fruitcake that is an Easter classic and is often associated with Mother's Day.

Caerphilly Mothers’ Union will be selling Mothering Sunday and Easter cards and promote Mothers’ Union and the church in the community at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop in Caerphilly where they also hold fashion shows twice a year. Access Mothering Sunday Faith Resources from Mothers’ Union here.

Let us know about your Mothering Sunday services and activities for us to promote. Email marymann@cinw.org.uk

It is over twenty years ago after the birth of our first child that I was first aware of liturgy for after the birth of a child – “The Churching of Women”. However, as kind and well-meaning as the priest was who offered to “Church” me was, it was far from meeting my needs. Some four years later I gave birth to our next child, who was born gravely ill and spent some time in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, because of a rare platelet and autoimmune disorder in my body, which attacked her body. I was distraught, I felt betrayed by my own body, but there was no outlet, no way of marking the difficult transition into the world that my daughter had made, no way of making peace with myself with God. Like many women I have miscarried a child, I have experienced painful menstruation that has debilitated me, I have faced the fact that I couldn’t have any more children because of the rare platelet disorder, and now I am beginning to face perimenopause and yet nowhere does the church formally acknowledge or support these distinct bodily experiences of women, and for someone who loves and is inspired by the liturgical action of the church, I have always felt something is missing in my life to support my faith in this way.

As a family we spent nine years living and working in Canada, I had the most incredible privilege of keeping company with indigenous women. These women taught me so much about being in touch with my own body through ritual. As I began to explore this, I realised that it was often the women of the developed world that had lost touch with their physical, emotional and spiritual responses to their bodily experiences. My research led me to conclude that is because the church has carried a distorted and biased assertion that women’s bodies are somehow unclean and unholy. Yet as a woman, I can see that women’s bodies are the ground of so much creative power and beauty, something my Aboriginal sisters hadn’t lost.

The more I talked with women of all ages, the more I realised that we as a Church are missing a vital connection with women by not connecting with their bodily experiences and their spiritual life. In my final year at the St. Padarn’s Institute, whilst training for the priesthood, I decided to use my own experience and passion for liturgical embodiment to write my dissertation exploring; “Is it possible to create a practical and usable liturgy that gives voice to the bodily experiences of women in Wales?” Within four chapters I considered what is currently authorised for use in Wales and if the liturgies available meet the needs of Welsh women today. I explored if authorization of such liturgies is empowering or disempowering for Welsh women, and what makes for an effective liturgical and ritual action for women’s bodily experiences. In the final chapter, I wrote a liturgy using the research that expresses both the joys and sorrows of women’s bodily experiences.

So, as part of our Celebrating Women at Margam Abbey, we are going to offer this liturgy. It will be a women-only space to come together to share, be heard, be honoured, mourn, or give thanks for the bodily experience that women share. We will be able to acknowledge that God is with us in these experiences and the depth of our spirituality is reflected in our experience which is often at the most significant parts of our lives. I hope by offering this liturgy we can begin to examine how women might be able to explore how the church could offer more liturgical expressions for women’s bodily experience in Wales that nourish and sustain us in our spiritually embodied lives.