Mothers' Union has created a new link with the growing membership of the organisation in Baghdad, to offer them prayer, support, and practical help.

The Mothers' Union group in the Baghdad church has grown from 100 members when it started, at Easter 2006, to more than 400 now, despite being surrounded by bomb barricades and armed guards.

The members meet every week, and hope to run parenting courses, visit orphanages and make cots for disabled children.

The setting is different but their projects are similar to those run by the Portsmouth Mothers' Union, which organises holidays for deprived families, works with a women's refuge and makes 'wraps' for stillborn babies at St Mary's Hospital. The link confirms both the international perspective and the family emphasis of the modern Mothers' Union.

Canon Andrew White, the rector of St George's Church, Baghdad, made the link possible, as he spoke about the situation in Iraq at a Mothers' Union event in Denmead last summer.

Having just launched the Mothers' Union branch in Baghdad, he suggested a link with the Portsmouth Diocese - which stretches from Botley in the west to Emsworth in the east and includes the whole of the Isle of Wight.

St George's Church itself, the only Anglican church in Iraq, has more than 800 members, making it one of the largest and most active churches in the country. Its members come from a variety of Christian backgrounds, including Chaldean, Assyrian, Catholic, Evangelical and Syrian Orthodox.