The Bishop of Dudley is asking people to remember the mums struggling to make ends meet this Mothering Sunday.

The Right Reverend David Walker said more and more mothers were turning to church-run Food Banks to feed their children as a result of the tough economic climate.

He said it was hard to feel sentimental about motherhood when mothers across the UK are facing the prospect of losing their homes because of bedroom tax or the cap on benefits.

"This year I want to have in my thoughts and prayers all those mothers who are struggling against poverty to give their children a start in life," he said.

He recalled the efforts of his own late mother, who worked and also received state benefits which "just kept us afloat". 

"For her sake I'm not sentimental at all about motherhood this year, I'm actually rather angry about the ways our society is undermining it," he said.

The origins of Mothering Sunday are closely connected to the church.  In the early 1900s it had dropped off the social radar but in1921 Constance Penswick-Smith, the daughter of the vicar of Coddington, called for the national day of celebration to be re-established.  She campaigned for years to see it happen and although she died in 1938, by the 1950s Mothering Sunday was once again being observed nationally.

The Church of England is suggesting that prayers for mothers be posted on online at http://www.prayoneforme.org