Anglican Groups Replaced

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32073, 22 August 1969, Page 2

Anglican Groups Replaced

The Association of Anglican Women, a comprehensive organisation with no rules of entry, has been formed to replace the Anglican Mothers’ Union and the Young Wives’ Group in New Zealand.

The association would enable the women of the Anglican Church, both married and single, to speak with one voice, the Christchurch diocesan president (Mrs P. A. Tipping) said yesterday. Previously, the Mothers’ Union, which did not include single women, divorced women, or women married to divorced men, was the “voice” of Anglican women. “The new, wider o-gandsa-tion can include any band of women, not necessarily former members of the Mothers’ Union or Young Wives’ Group,” Mrs Tipping said. "The only qualification is that they want to join. Members do not even have to be Anglicans.

“We are hoping for more members, particularly among mothers of teen-age children. Many of them were ?ut off joining the Mothers’ Union because of the ruling on divorced members. Even if .it did not apply to themselves, they thought it made the organisation sort of exclusive.”

Single women would be very welcome to join the association, and there would be "quite a bit of autonomy in each diocese.” The aims of the association, which was formed at the Dominion conference of the Mothers’ Union in Wellington recently, were:— (1) To unite women in prayer, and, particularly, in the mission of the Church. (2) To promote and safeguard Christian family life. The Mothers’ Union and Young Wives’ Group had joined to become the Family Fellowship, and this was affiliated to the Association

of Anglican Women, Mrs Tipping said. "To broaden the fellowship there will be three levels of interest, temporarily called junior, intermediate, and senior, the junior level actually replacing the Young Wives’ Group,” she arid. “The leaders of there divisions will be vicepreddents of the Association of Anglican Women.”

Groups of women from nine dioceses in New Zealand will form the Association of Anglican Women, and diocesan presidents will be on the Dominion executive of the association.

The first Dominion president is Mrs R. P. G. Parr, of Auckland (formerly Miss Jeanne Lee, of Christchurch).