The organisation was founded by Mary Sumner in 1876 in the Church of England parish of Old Alresford, near Winchester, where her husband was rector.

[4] In 1885 Ernest Roland Wilberforce, the first Bishop of Newcastle, was preparing to address churchgoing women at the Portsmouth Church Congress.

Although she was reluctant and beset by nervousness, she addressed the women passionately about the power of mothers to change the nation for the better.

[3] The Mothers' Union spread rapidly to the dioceses of Ely, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield and Newcastle, and then throughout the United Kingdom.

[4] In 1897, during her Diamond Jubilee, Queen Victoria became patron of the Mothers' Union, giving it an unprecedented stamp of approval.

In the UK it has successfully lobbied governments to introduce the right to request flexible working for all parents, and internationally it speaks out on issues of gender equality through its representative status at the United Nations.

Campaigning in the UK has also included lobbying for industry and policy change with regard to the commercialisation and sexualisation of children.

Aim and purpose: To demonstrate the Christian faith in action by the transformation of communities worldwide through the nurture of the family in its many forms.