Mother's Union

The United Benefice of Sharnbrook, Felmersham and Knotting with Souldrop

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Recent Events: (See Diary for future events)

22nd. April 2010: Susan Roberts, Diocesan President.

At our Mothers Union Meeting this month we were very honoured to have as our guest speaker Susan Roberts, our newly elected Diocesan President, the subject being the Amish people. Having lived near them in America she had first hand knowledge of their origins and way of life which proved to be extremely interesting.

In Europe there were many splits in the church with Catholics and Protestants. There were the Anabaptists who were cruelly persecuted but under Martin Luther much reforming took place and Jakob Ammann shaped much of their history.

In the 18th century the Amish began to emigrate to Pennsylvania. They bought land and began farming becoming very self contained and were easily identified by their dress and way of life. They quickly spread into many areas, the largest is in Ohio. They are very closely knit family communities, preferring to educate their own children and even went to the Supreme Court for the Right to do this. They have no electricity or cars and to this day still live in the old traditional way. They do however go to the super market but go along in their horse drawn carriages.

They have Sunday worship every two weeks when all the families get together, sometimes as many as 100, and after the service share a meal together. The alternate Sunday is for visiting families and friends who maybe live in nearby other communities.

At the age of 16 to 18 the young ones get the opportunity to move away from the only life they have ever known to try the 'modern' way but thankfully most come back to the safety of the family home.

We could not imagine our children in that situation and felt that maybe we as a society have lost many of our family traditions.

Many questions followed and later we enjoyed seeing some of the things that Susan had brought to show us. One being a beautiful hand quilted wall hanging for which the Amish are very famous.

The evening was brought to a close with Pat Rowe giving a very warm vote of thanks for a most enjoyable subject which many of us before had known very little about. Enid Salter.

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FUND RAISING

This year, the Grants Committee at Mary Sumner House has asked us to help raise funds for two small projects that will help families in Mozambique. Both projects are in the same area called Níassa, which is a rural area and where poverty is the root of much of the trouble for families. Unemployment is around 75% and some 65% of rural Mozambican women are illiterate.

The first project is based in the town of Lichinga where 25 families will raise ducks, chickens and goats. The offspring of these animals will be passed on to other families. Rosa Nhone, the local Mothers' Union worker will help 12 women to run the project. £1849 will buy 100 chickens, 20 ducks and 10 goats together with animal pens, training for the women, food and medicine for the animals, travel to fetch the animals and monitoring the project for 2 years.

The second project is to provide 50 bicycles for 50 Mothers' Union leaders who need to visit their branches as well as people who are sick. The leaders each have between 2 and 12 congregations and bikes are the preferred form of transport after legs. There is no M.U, vehicle, no priest has a car and few people drive anyway. There are large distances to travel on poor roads, and bicycles are low maintenance with bike and tyre menders on every street in every village.

Our branch will raise funds by walking round Harrold Country Park as a group and donating E1.00 each. We have done this already and was so enjoyable, we will be repeating the exercise on Thurs. 5 August at 10am. For those less inclined to walk we ask you to keep an egg box, cut a slot in the top and each time you use an egg, place 5p in the box.

Diary for 2010:

7 January	11am	Epiphany Service & AGM	St Peter’s Sharnbrook
11 February	2.30pm	Heather Jones, “Children at Yarlswood”	St Peter’s Room
11 March	2.30pm	Holy Communion	St Peter’s Sharnbrook
22 April	7.30pm	Susan Roberts, Diocesan President “Herself & Mothers Union and the Amish people”	St Peter’s Room
13 May	2.30pm	Claire, “Felting”	St Peter’s Room
10 June	T.B.A.	Afternoon Tea	The Rectory
24 June	7.30pm	Ruth Presley, “Hospice at Home”	St Peter’s de Merton. De Parys Avenue, Bedford
8 July	2.30pm	Jacqui Albon, “Fostering”	St Peter’s Room
5th August	10.00am	Walk around Harrold Country Park	Harrold Country Park
23 September	7.30pm	Helen Jago, “Emmaus”	St Peter’s de Merton
7 Oct	2.30pm	Bill Steele, “My working life as a country Pharmacist”	St Peter’s Room
25 November	7.30pm	John Lewis, “Buddhism”	St Peter’s Room
9 December	2.30pm	Carol Party	St Peter’s Room
27 January 2011	T.B.A	Luncheon

Thursday afternoon meetings in St Peter's Room. Visitors always welcome.
For more information please contact Caroline Evens 782000 - email: caroline.evens@lineone.net

Ouse Valley Deanery Mother's Union
Inauguration by Bishop of Bedford on 18th. March 2007

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Last Updated: Wednesday 1st. September 2010
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