President's Report to the Annual Meeting 2007

It was good to see so many at the Commissioning Service in the Cathedral and it is good to see you all here today. We commissioned an enthusiastic team with lots of ideas for the next three years and I know you will give them your support. Barbara Lawes gave us a challenge in November and I know she will be watching and waiting to see how we are facing up to that challenge.

When I restarted MU in Frenchay, it was because of the vision of the Mothers’ Union. You can’t be an MU branch or member and be insular. I’ll repeat that…The world is now a global village and we in the West cannot put our heads in the sand. You are constantly being made aware of the projects in the Diocese, nationally and also around the world, whether through your branch leader, your Deanery leader, Home and Family, Encompass, Paws for Thought, the Newsletter or the MU Website. A member wrote to me last Autumn and said, in response to an item in the Newsletter, ‘What is Encompass?’ I won’t tell you which deanery or branch but I know and I did wonder why this information was not getting through! Later on we welcome Marilyn Oulds from Australia to tell us about MU in her country and how they respond to the needs in that young and vigorous nation.( I just hope she doesn’t mention cricket!)

Last year many of the branches responded magnificently to the request for more funds for our Overseas projects. On the Website I read ‘The women of the Sudan are so excited about their newly acquired literacy skills'. Being able to count the right change and to read the right destination on a bus sign makes a real difference to everyday life- and it costs just £20 to train one person. Think how much your branch sent and imagine the women you have enriched.

This year we must keep this going but we must also make sure we are nourishing and expanding our own diocesan projects. You will hear from the project leaders later on how we can do this and this afternoon we welcome David Maggs from the Churches Council for Industry and Social Responsibility, (ISR for short) who will tell us about his work with other communities and how we can get involved.

I am going to a Provincial Presidents’ meeting shortly and I would be very willing to bring up any issue you would like to be discussed. Please collar me in the lunch break and put your points forward and I will see that they are aired and reported in the next newsletter.