Mother’s Union has elected its first worldwide president from Canada: Kathleen Snow, a board member at the international Anglican charity and parish nurse at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, N.B. She is the second president of the charity to come from outside the U.K., following her predecessor, Sheran Harper from Guyana, who has been president for the past six years, Snow told the Anglican Journal.
As president, Snow says she will focus on upholding the charity’s long tradition of faith-based social action as an expression of God’s love for the world and on renewing its relevance in countries where its membership has dropped in the 21st century.
The nearly 150-year-old charity has proliferated most widely in Africa and Asia in recent decades and is comparatively unknown in countries like Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, she says. She hopes to boost its recognition and appeal in Western countries by speaking to young people’s enthusiasm for social activism.
When she joined Mother’s Union in 1988 at the suggestion of then-dean of Christ Church Cathedral John vanNostrand Wright, Snow says she had no aspirations to leadership. She didn’t expect to become the chapter leader a few years later, nor to become the president of the charity’s Canadian region in 2005 or the trustee for the zone covering Canada, the U.S., the West Indies and South America in 2019.
“I never, ever anticipated I would be in this role. He is a God of surprises,” she says.
Still, Mothers’ Union has been a deep and vital part of her faith since she joined in her twenties, says Snow, turning the love of God from a theoretical idea into a practical experience she could use to serve the world through the charity’s prayer-into-action model of service.
“My faith has grown through Mothers’ Union more than anything else,” she says. “Not [as much] through worshipping every Sunday, [but] through the community that we have—this community of faith.”
As one example of the charity’s inspiring work in the world she describes a story from members she met on a recent visit to Formosa, a province in northern Argentina where many of the Indigenous women work with Mothers’ Union. Snow says two of those women told her about a 2018 incident they witnessed in which armed police faced off against youths with rocks and sticks in a small town in the province. “Something terrible was about to happen,” says Snow, when about 10 Mothers’ Union members stepped between the police and the youths, praying, and managed to defuse the tension.
“They stopped what could have been a bloodbath,” she says. “That’s the power of what they do.”
During her presidency, Snow says she hopes to reawaken some of that passion for charity and peace in Mothers’ Union’s North American branches. By welcoming young people who may have a faith and an interest in social activism but who may have disengaged from organized religion, she says, the charity may even provide a bridge for them to re-encounter the church, she says.
In a letter of congratulation to Snow, Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, called her “a tireless advocate for the welfare of families, women and children” across her decades of service for the Mothers’ Union and a representative of the Anglican Church of Canada to the global Anglican Communion.
“Your leadership has not only strengthened the Mothers’ Union within Canada but has also made a profound impact on the global work of the organization,” Germond wrote. “As you step into this new role, I am confident that your years of experience and your understanding of the power of prayer, fellowship, and practical service will guide you in fostering deeper unity and purpose across the worldwide Mothers’ Union network.”
Founded in England in 1876, Mothers’ Union has operations on all six inhabited continents, including programs supporting refugees, reconnecting prison inmates with their families, delivering courses in parenting and raising awareness to reduce gender-based violence. The charity is especially active within the Anglican Communion, and members of its worldwide council must be members of the Anglican church or a church in communion with it.
