This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 10 December 2019. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
MUMS across the diocese are being offered posies and Simnel cake on Mothering Sunday, 6 March, while mums from Sudan to Burundi are getting the chance of a new life, all courtesy of Mothers' Union members in Berks, Bucks and Oxon.
Shutterstock "We're not just brightening lives this Mothering Sunday, we're making new ones," says Alison Bennett, the new Diocesan President of the Mothers' Union in Oxford Diocese.
"Mothering Sunday is transforming lives in seven African countries through members giving gifts of hope as an alternative to chocolate and flowers this year.
And each gets a card that wishes 'Happy Mothering Sunday' to give to their own mother. "Make a Mother's Day is our biggest fundraising effort of the year and has a huge impact on the lives of many families around the world.
The gifts available at range from £6 to set someone up on a Bible study course in Uganda to £100 to establish a self-help group in a church in, say, Burundi or The Sudan and start solving the problems of their community. "Mothers' Union members who buy a gift in memory of a much loved mother either receive a card or have the name recorded in a yearly Remembrance book kept in the chapel at Mary Sumner House, in London.