The Spirit of Mother's Day
During the 19th century, women's peace groups in the United States tried to establish holidays and regular activities in favor of peace and against war. A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War.
Even before then, in 1858 Ann Jarvis had organized Mother's Day Work Clubs in several Appalachian communities of what would become West Virginia during the Civil War. These clubs began initiatives to provide assistance and education to families, raising money to buy medicine and hire help for families impacted by tuberculosis and other health issues, and developing programs for milk inspection. During the Civil War, they fed and clothed soldiers stationed in the area, both Union and Confederate, and nursed soldiers during typhoid and measles outbreaks. Following the war, Ann organized a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day", the purpose of which was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War." She wanted to expand these into an annual memorial for mothers.
There were several observances of Mother's Days in different parts of the country throughout the 1870's & 1880's. Julia Ward Howe, author of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," led a "Mother's Day for Peace" anti-war observance throughout the 1870's. In these celebrations, mothers all around the world would work towards world peace.
Mother's Day was officially proclaimed a national holiday in 1914, asking us to remember those mothers who had lost sons in war. Through the years we have, appropriately, I think, expanded those we celebrate on Mother's Day to include our own mothers, and those who have shared God's mothering love with those around them in all of the different ways we might imagine. I believe acknowledging and encouraging that active mothering love of God in one another hearkens back to the spirit of Ann Jarvis' Mother's Day Work Clubs, and Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's Day for Peace," and so many others like them through the years. When we remember and celebrate those (especially women) who have cared for and shaped us this Sunday, and when we join them in caring for and shaping other's, all of God's children all year long, we are living the spirit of Mother's Day, indeed.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alan