Harnessing Mothers’ Union Activities as a Means to Enhance Church Marriages

Abstract

Church marriage plays a central role in spiritual, social, and family life, offering moral guidance, relational mentorship, and community support. The Mothers’ Union (MU) emerged in this historical context as a movement to strengthen Christian marriage and family life. While economic factors such as the high cost of church weddings are often cited, deep-rooted cultural beliefs surrounding clan rituals, ancestral approval, and customary obligations continue to shape marital legitimacy, making traditional marriage more socially authoritative in many communities. The Mothers’ Union represents one of the most enduring faith-based women’s movements within Christian institutions, particularly within Anglican traditions, where it functions as both a spiritual fellowship and a structured social support system. Church marriage is a Christian marital union solemnised within a church setting according to established religious rites and formally sanctioned by denominational authority. Counselling wedded couples is the most important and most tricky challenge affecting mothers’ unions in Uganda and possibly beyond because of several factors, namely masterminded by the social media and modernisation. Sensitisation programs should be organised from time to time among members of the mothers’ union on how to cope with modernisation and the robust expansion of the social media among wedded couples.