Episcopalian Church Offering Service to Honor Mary on Feast of the Assumption
Of all days for a Protestant tradition to hold a service honoring Mary , why on the Feast of the Assumption?
“The people of the church need to know that Mary is important in the life of the church,” said the Rev. William F. Dopp, rector at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Hudson. “Mary is to be honored.” To help achieve that end, Dopp’s church is offering a service for Mary on Wednesday, her feast day. It includes a dramatic reading of words attributed to Mary, as well as a teaching on her role in the church.
Is anyone aware of why Episcopalians, who clearly reject the authority of the Catholic Church and, therefore, also presumably reject doctrines of The Immaculate Conception and Assumption, would choose that very day which Catholic’s celebrate the latter?
In the Episcopal tradition, August 15th is observed as the commemoration “Of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, and the recent Anglican-Roman Catholic agreed statement on the Virgin Mary assigns a place for both the Dormition and the Assumption in Anglican devotion.
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My husband and I went to an Anglo-Catholic parish in our town for a time before we converted to Catholicism. (At that time, the Episcopal Church was more tolerant of the “High Church” tradition.) The priest there had quite a devotion to the Blessed Virgin, especially Our Lady of Knock. I’ve also met conservative Episcopalians who believe in a form of Purgatory. C. S. Lewis believed in baptismal regeneration, and they have a doctrine of the Eucharist that makes reference to the Real Presence - though without apostolic succession, of course, it doesn’t quite drop them at the station, as it were.
Anglicanism/Episcopalianism is a strange hybrid of Protestant and Catholic, actually. Mostly it’s the rejection of direct papal authority that they all share.
Flannery O’Connor once said something like, “Scratch an Episcopalian, and you never know what you’ll find underneath.”
Comment by Kathleen Lundquist — August 13, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
Ex-piskie here. It makes a certain sense. August 15th is the only Marian feast observed in Anglicanism, and it’s consistent with the idea of commemorating all the saints on the day of their death or passing from this life. Even though the Church only proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, it was always part of the Patristic tradition, East and West. And I think August 15th was always an observance of Mary’s entrance into heaven, even “unofficially” before that time.
Comment by franksta — August 14, 2007 @ 8:31 am
Some clarification:
The 1979 American BCP lists March 25 as the Annunciation, of course, in addition to August 15 as “The Blessed Virgin Mary”.
The 1928 American book listed February 2 as “Purification of the BVM” and March 25 as “Annunciation to the BVM,” but no other dates (including no August 15).
The 1662 BCP lists 12/8 as “Conception of the BVM” and 9/8 as “Nativity of the BVM”–no others.
Common Worship in the UK lists ALL of the above, except calling February 2 “the Presentation”.
None of the books list January 1 as a Marian feast–it’s always either the Circumcision or the Holy Name.
Comment by franksta — August 14, 2007 @ 8:44 am
One more snarkism. Since the summit of TEC’s polity is its Canons and Constitution, that means that “canonization” is in the gift of its General Convention. This is why the 1979 “Kalendar” includes such oddities as the (Plymouth Brethren) Ecudorean martyrs, Tikhon of Russia, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, and Martin Luther King, Jr. There was even a motion floated, I think, at last GC to put Thurgood Marhsall on the calendar!
Comment by franksta — August 14, 2007 @ 9:47 am
Thanks franksta.
Comment by shelray — August 14, 2007 @ 11:35 am
In matters like this, the challenge is to decide whether Mark 9:40 or Luke 11:23 is the relevant Gospel passage. The Episcopal Chuch is in such a doctrinal crisis right now, I prefer to see anything like this as a sign of hope. There’s nothing wrong with honoring Mary on ANY day. If it looks like grace, I’m inclined to believe it’s grace.
Comment by Woodward — August 15, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
No matter how one might view the Episcopalian tradition or particular Episcopalians, it is generally inaccurate to label them as “Protestants,” a term usually reserved for the philosophical descendants of Luther, not Henry VIII.
The elucidated doctrines of the 1854 and 1950 were not plucked from thin air by popes. They represented centuries of liturgy and personal devotion by the faithful. If Anglicans retained much of the Roman liturgical heritage, I’m surprised anyone would be surprised they would observe Marian feasts. Just read a copy of the BCP.
Comment by Todd — August 18, 2007 @ 11:04 am