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Records of the headquarters of the Mothers' Union, Mary Sumner House, Westminster. The majority of the archive dates from when the Mothers' Union established a centralised structure in the 1890s, and contains a small number of papers from members who, although not always based at Mary Sumner House, played important roles within the MU (see MU/MSS/2). Although some files run into the 1990s, many of the series stop in the early 1980s, which coincides with a survey undertaken of the archive in Mary Sumner House (see MU/CO/1/127).

The foundation of the Mothers' Union is dated to the publication of the first membership card in 1876. The society was established by Mary Sumner, wife of the Rector of Old Alresford in the Diocese of Winchester, to defend the institution of marriage and promote Christian family life. This concern broadened over time to consider all factors affecting the morality of society, within the home and without.

Initially a network of meetings in parishes in the Diocese of Winchester, by the mid 1890s, the MU had established a centralised governing body in London, and had a number of branches overseas; from the early twentieth century, departments were established to deal with specialised tasks in the society's work. Although the society was primarily concerned with the role of the mother and the upbringing of children, married women without children and unmarried women were allowed to join as Associate Members from the outset. Throughout the twentieth century the MU addressed a variety of contemporary social issues (such as runaway children, drug dependence, venereal disease, housing conditions and birth control), but reserved particular efforts for campaigning against divorce and marriage breakdown.

Faced with a need to address a liberalisation in both society and the Church in the decades following the Second World War, the Mothers' Union revised its constitution in 1974 giving greater autonomy to the MU overseas and no longer excluding divorcées. Further reassessment took place in the early 1990s when the need to comply with charity regulations prompted a restructuring of the organisation.

Records of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association and its predecessors comprising:

minutes of the Eastern Churches Association, 1893-1914 (1 vol);

minutes of the General Committee of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association 1913-1960 (1 vol);

OEOCU attendance book, 1908-1920, at various meetings and conferences of the Union/Association (1 vol);

Notebook of the Bournemouth Branch of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association (formed 1922), containing addresses of members, minutes of meeting, 1937 and related papers, 1940s (1 vol);

Scrap book of cuttings relating to Eastern churches and prelates, 1945-1950 (1 vol);

Papers relating to the Eastern Churches Students Committee re theological education of Serbian Students at Oxford including minutes, 1919-1922 (1 file);

Papers relating to anniversary meeting of the Association, 1932-1941 (2 files);

Secretary's Correspondence and related papers relating to the concerns of the Association, 1890s-1980s (12 files);

Papers and letters relating to the Fynes-Clinton row, 1932-33 (1 file);

Copies of printed journals of Eastern churches including Serbia, Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, 1900s, 1960s-1970s; (1 bundle);

printed reports of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union, 1906-1914, (4 vols);

printed reports of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association 1914-1935 (5 vols);

publications including Eastern Churches Newsletter (ECNL) 1969-2002 (incomplete); Koinonia, from 2003.