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Blessed Virgin in Anglican Worship
An Anglican Perspective
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
The human agent in the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14), was the pure and ever Blessed Virgin Mary. She was chosen and prepared by God for this work.
In the year 431, at the Council of Ephesus, the universal Church bestowed upon Mary the title of Theotokos, which literally means the “God-bearer,” but is most commonly translated into English as the “Mother of God.” This honor does not mean that Mary is the Mother of Christ’s divinity, but that the human child she bore was truly divine, the God-man. The emphasis in Our Lady’s title, “Mother of God,” is to be placed upon the word God rather than on the word Mother. This is, no doubt, how she prefers it.
Since the early centuries of the Church, many Christians have believed that our Lord’s Mother, because she was “highly favoured” by god and gave birth to the sinless “Son of God” (Luke 1:28, 32), was herself, from the moment of her conception in the womb of Anne her mother, through a singular act of God’s grace, free from all sin.
“Immaculate” is the title that has generally been applied to her and, since 1561, the commemoration of the “Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” (December 8th) has appeared on the Calendar of the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer.
John Pearson (1613-86), Bishop of Chester, the author of what is probably the greatest book ever written on the Nicene Creed by an Anglican Churchman, Exposition of the Creed (1659), spoke of Our Lady as “for ever the most Immaculate and Blessed Virgin.” [Visit theSOCIETY OF MARYAnglican Order] It should not be overlooked that Bishop Pearson was perhaps the most learned and profound theologian in one of the most learned and theological ages in the history of the Church of England.
In the Roman Catholic Church, since 1854, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (that is, the belief that Mary was conceived without original sin) has been defined an essential dogma of the Roman Church. In the Anglican Communion of churches, because the doctrine is not specifically spelled out in the Holy Scriptures, which for Anglicans are “the rule and ultimate standard of faith,” belief in the Immaculate Conception is not “requisite or necessary to salvation.” A significant number of Anglicans, however, especially those from the Anglo-Catholic tradition, unconditionally receive the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as an integral component of their Christian faith and would argue that the doctrine is certainly implied in the New Testament.
Whether members of The Episcopal Church accept the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception or not, all Anglicans do agree that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be honored above all other human beings next to our Lord Himself. Perhaps the words of Joseph Hall (1574-1656), Bishop of Norwich, and one of the great moderate voices in Anglican church history, put it best when he wrote: “O Blessed Mary, he cannot bless thee, he cannot honour thee, too much, that defies thee not.”
The Rev Mark R. Galloway, St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, Rhode Island
[THE ANGLICAN DIGEST, ADVENT A.D. 2001]
{It should be noted, that similar views were ‘strongly’ held by, even, such protesters as Luther and Calvin i.e. their love and respect for the Blessed Virgin Mary and there unwavering stand on her perpetual virginity is a matter of unquestioned record.}
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