National Marriage Week: The BIG Promise

Marriage vows are the most long-term promises we ever make – to love and care for someone else for the rest of our lives! They are a commitment to put someone else’s interests as equal to our own, and they involve setting aside our own short-term ‘wants’ for long-term stability and satisfaction.
They are life changing – and have a huge impact on the way our lives work out. For those that make them they are ‘the BIG Promise’.

Every year more than a quarter of a million couples across the UK signify their commitment to each other by getting married – they make, explicitly or implicitly, promises to each other that form the bedrock on which successful marriages are built.

And every year Marriage Week (7th – 14th February) celebrates all those promises down the years, and seeks to encourage and support couples in their marriages.

The Mothers’ Union vision is of a world where God’s love is shown through loving, respectful and flourishing relationships. This is not a vague hope, but a goal which is actively pursued by working with people of all faiths and none in 83 countries to promote stable marriage, family life and the protection of children through praying, enabling and campaigning.

There is a natural fit between the aims of the Mothers’ Union and those of National Marriage Week which is why our MU branch at St John's Seven Kings regularly organises a display in the St John’s Centre for Marriage Week. This is in addition to its ongoing work of running our Contact Centre and Pram Club plus fundraising for MU projects and a regular programme of branch meetings. This year our display focuses on those in our congregation with significant Wedding Anniversaries during 2014.

Marriage Week celebrates healthy marriages as this social institution, which has been enshrined in the history of civilization, provides vital inter-generational links and stability bringing benefits to all of society. So, it is a Week, not just for those who are married, but for everyone who loves healthy marriage. Similarly, the members of the Mothers’ Union are not all mothers, or even all women. They are single, married, parents, grandparents, or young adults just beginning to express their social conscience; anyone who wishes to promote stable marriage, family life and the protection of children through praying, enabling and campaigning.

Does that describe you? Why not find out more about the work of Mothers’ Union during Marriage Week?

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The Dixie Cups - Chapel of Love.