Mary Sumner

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Mary Sumner (31 December 1828 – 9 August 1921) was the founder of the Mothers' Union, a worldwide Anglican women's organisation. She is commemorated in a number of provinces of the Anglican Communion on 9 August.

Born Mary Elizabeth Heywood in Swinton, Greater Manchester (then in Lancashire), the third of four children, her father was a banker and keen amateur historian, and her mother was a woman of personal piety. The family moved to Colwall near Ledbury, Herefordshire, in 1832, where Mary's mother held mothers' meetings. A year after their arrival in Herefordshire, Mary's six-week-old brother died. Her mother's faith, her women's meetings and her brother's infant death may have all inspired her to begin the Mothers' Union. Mary was educated at home, and learnt to speak three foreign languages and to sing well. To complete her musical education, Mary travelled with her mother and elder sister to Rome. Whilst there she met her future husband George Sumner, son of Charles Richard Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, and a relative of William Wilberforce. The couple were married in Colwall on 26 July 1848, eighteen months after George Sumner's ordination as Anglican cleric. They had three children: Margaret, Louise and George, the latter became a well-known artist in his time.

In 1851, George Sumner was given the living of Old Alresford, Hampshire, in his father's diocese. Mary dedicated herself to raising her children, and helping her husband in his ministry by providing music and Bible classes. In 1876, when her eldest daughter Margaret gave birth, Mary was reminded how difficult she had found the burden of motherhood. She was inspired to call a meeting of mothers in the parish to offer mutual support. Her plan was quite radical in its day, as it involved calling women of all social classes to support one another, and to see motherhood as a profession as important as those of men, if not more so. The first meeting was held in Old Alresford Rectory, but Mary was so overcome by nervousness that George had to speak for her and invite the women to return next week. At that second meeting, Mary had gathered enough courage to lead her own meeting.

The nascent Mothers' Union was limited to Mary Sumner's parish. However, in 1885, she was part of the audience in the Portsmouth Church Congress, some twenty miles from her home. The first Bishop of Newcastle, Ernest Wilberforce, had been asked to address the women churchgoers. He felt that he had very little to say to women, and invited Mary to speak in his stead. Although nervous once again, she gave a passionate address about national morality and the importance of women's vocation as mothers to change the nation for the better. A number of the women present went back to their parishes to found mothers' meetings on Sumner's pattern, and the then Bishop of Winchester, Edward Browne, made the Mothers' Union a diocesan organisation.

Rapidly, the Mothers' Union spread to the dioceses of Ely, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield and Newcastle, and then throughout the United Kingdom. By 1892, there were 60,000 members in 28 dioceses, which grew to 169,000 members by the turn of the century. In 1893, annual general meetings were organised, and, in 1896, the Mothers' Union Central Council was formed. Mary Sumner was unanimously elected president, a post she held into her nineties. In 1897, during her Diamond Jubilee, Queen Victoria became patron of the Mothers' Union, giving it an unprecedented stamp of approval. Mary Sumner's Mothers' Union set up branches throughout the British Empire, beginning in New Zealand, then Canada and India. She lived to lead the Mothers' Union to act in rebuilding the heart of Britain after the First World War, and saw the first Mothers' Union Conference of Overseas Workers in 1920.

Mary Sumner died on 9 August 1921 at the age of 92. She is buried with her husband, who had died twelve years before, in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral. She is commemorated in the liturgical calendars of the Church of England, Church in Wales and other provinces on the date of her death.