We believe in marriage!

Mothers' Union believes that a happy marriage is of great value to family life, and to society as a whole. Through our projects, in our advocacy and as part of our faith life, our aim is to promote and strengthen marriage, and to support those who have had damaging experiences of married life.
What do we mean by Marriage?

As Christians we believe marriage is a relationship instituted by God between one man and one woman as a unique equal and complementary relationship ordained by God as a covenant relationship. Through marriage a couple fulfil God's plan to make a new family unit, with the opportunity to have children together. The stability this union brings is beneficial to the couple, to the children of the couple and serves as the bedrock within society.

Through our policy work we encourage governments to support marriage as essential to the stability of society, especially for family life.  We believe that economic and legislative support of marriage is needed, both to help struggling families, and to encourage couples that consider marriage unachievable. Unemployment, lack of affordable housing and poverty are situations of growing concern to us. We believe that these can restrict couples' opportunity to marry and therefore weaken and destabilise society.

We also seek to encourage a positive and realistic portrayal of marriage in media. Marriage should not necessarily be portrayed as a fairytale ideal, but as a real relationship, where the benefits of commitment and the implications of separation are spoken of realistically, and the benefits of happiness, stability and security, particularly for children, are known and valued.

We support marriage around the world through the provision of marriage preparation for couples preparing to marry within church, marriage support to couples and separation and divorce recovery. In the UK and Ireland our Loving for Life programmes equips members to work alongside clergy to deliver locally appropriate marriage preparation. You can read more about Loving for Life by following this link.

We have also produced prayers and Bible studies and reflections for couples preparing for marriage and their family. If you are a couple preparing for marriage we hope you find these useful.

Within England, Wales and Scotland there are currently proposals to redefine marriage to include marriage between same sex couples. Whilst we welcome and support the stability Civil Partnership brings to same-sex couples and their families, Mothers' Union continues to hold the view that marriage is between one man and one woman. Nevertheless we are mindful that our membership is made of 4 million individuals with a diversity of views, and therefore we will remain committed to a process of ongoing listening and consultation and open to God's leading. 

To find out more about the position of Mothers' Union within England, Wales and Scotland, and to read the summaries of our response to the government consultations please refer to the following documents.

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