Whats the episcopal/anglican opinion about Mary, and Saints statues ? in churchs

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The degrees of certainty given in Ott’s Fundamentals are:
  1. Mary gave the Redeemer, the Source of all graces, to the world, and in this way she is the channel of all graces. (Sent. certa.)
  2. Since Mary’s Assumption into Heaven no grace is conferred on man without her actual intercessory co-operation (Sent. pia et probabilis).
The first one is what the priest you spoke with was saying–“sententia certa” refers to teachings without a formal, definitive judgment, but clearly deduced from revelation. They are certain.

The second one is a pious and probable opinion, but not certain.
 
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In the Church of England it’s now fairly common to find statues or icons of the BVM. My parish church is not Anglo-Catholic but we have 2 statues of the BVM, the main one being in the Lady Chapel - a side Chapel with altar dedicated to the BVM.

Statuary in the CofE was generally reintroduced by the Ritualists (Anglo-Catholics) in the second half of the 19th century and caused much unrest at the time. It’s now more widely accepted in the CofE but still frowned upon by some.

Whilst the CofE retained the commemoration of Saints Days at the Reformation (including several for the BVM) the BCP Collects for these days were rewritten to exclude asking for their intercession. Whilst Common Worship follows suit, some of our Eucharistic Prayers can make mention of the BVM or patron saint of the church. There are some Anglo-Catholic parishes in the CofE however who sing the Angelus or pray the Rosary etc.

My cathedral church has an almost life size statue of the BVM with votives and there are lots of statues of the Celtic Saints who are so widespread in my diocese

Pics below show St Endelienta, St Buriana and St Wenn (Celtic Saints) and misc. statues of the BVM in CofE churches.

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HopkinsReb said:
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RoseScented:
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HopkinsReb:
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Tis_Bearself:
Mary is also the “mediatrix of all graces” as she is tasked by God with distributing graces to mankind.
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Is this an official doctrine or dogma, or just a common view? Because the idea that literally all grace is directly meted out by Mary seems to go too far. I have also heard it explained by a RC priest as meaning that Mary, in bringing Christ into the world, then mediated all graces to the world.
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I sure hope that option 1 isn’t a requirement, if so that’ll be my first really tough thing to make it through for the faith in a while. I’ve always balked quite heavily at that interpretation for a while now. Your second option as explained by some priests is always how I roll with the “mediatrix of all graces” route if I have to confront it. I have no problem with people who believe option one, but it’s not one I find useful to my spiritual life.
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Version 2 is perfectly fine to me. It would take some effort to convince me that version 1 doesn’t replace Christ with Mary.
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I have problems with version 2 as well. I was instructed that so long as I was ok with version 1 I was fine. I was also told that it was not “wrong” for someone to choose to believe version 2 so long as they had a proper understanding of it.
 
GKMotley said:
My parishes’ Mary shrine has a statue of OL of Walsingham. That would be common in more Anglo-Catholic parishes.
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One of the reasons my mother recently switched from a conservative Lutheran parish to a continuing Anglican parish was just this…more tolerance for her devotion to Mary. (We all started as anti-Catholic evangelical protestants years ago…then I became Catholic and the ripple effects continue).
 
mrsdizzyd said:
I have problems with version 2 as well. I was instructed that so long as I was ok with version 1 I was fine. I was also told that it was not “wrong” for someone to choose to believe version 2 so long as they had a proper understanding of it.
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Please refer to the CA apologist link I posted above for a good explanation of the Church teaching.
 
JohnStrachan said:
All Anglo-catholics are indeed Anglican, most Anglicans are not Anglo-catholic.
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I confess to Almighty God, to Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, to Blessed Michael the Archangel, to Blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints, and to thee, Father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, deed; [they strike their breast thrice] by my fault, by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault. Wherefore I beg Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, Blessed Michael the Archangel, Blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Angels and Saints, and thee, Father, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
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An Anglican prayer of preparation prior to mass for the priest and lay servers.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
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mrsdizzyd:
I have problems with version 2 as well. I was instructed that so long as I was ok with version 1 I was fine. I was also told that it was not “wrong” for someone to choose to believe version 2 so long as they had a proper understanding of it.
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Please refer to the CA apologist link I posted above for a good explanation of the Church teaching.
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Yes, I have read that tract. That’s what I meant by Version 2 is fine so long as it is properly understood. I’m personally still uncomfortable with it, but me being uncomfortable does not mean that I don’t assent to the teaching of the church. Accepting version 1 is the first step in assenting to the teaching of the church.

As a side note: I also am uncomfortable with flowery Renaissance language about Mary, but that does not mean that I do not assent to the Marian dogmas.
 
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The Confiteor. May be found in the Anglican Missal or St. Augustine’s Prayer Book.
 
Anglicans and Episcopalians do ask for Our Lady’s intercession as well as the Saints. Sadly Our Lady is misunderstood by many of them. The Rosary is prayed occasionally, and statues of Our Lady and the Saints are permitted.
 
Though this has varied in time. The early post-Hank Anglican Church was fairly iconoclastic.
 
Ok, the article articulated how I thought the Church would explain the Mediatrix of All Graces and I’m fine with it as it is stated in the article. Just the same, it is not a title of Mary that I find particularly useful for my spiritual life. I had a family member who I always thought took Marian devotion too far explain it to me as a child in a different way. Think “Mary has a store of graces that are for her to use and give out at her will because she was Full of Grace and the Lord cannot give a person grace except through her” kinda way. When I say “cannot” I don’t mean (due to the way He has made us a part of his body it’s natural that the graces would disperse this way) I mean he literally cannot do it.

She also got angry with me if I would mention praying to Jesus since she insisted that you had to go to his mother for permission first since it was polite. She’s the main reason I have a lot of hangups with personal devotion to Mary past a point.

That’s why the concept of Mediatrix of All Graces works better in my mind from the perspective of Mary being the Mother of God due to her Fiat (the hierarchy works in my head from that perspective), because of being His mother she is “top saint” in Heaven and since the Lord gives grace through the Church (His body) she’d be at the “summit” (or neck as the article said) of where the graces would come from which is Jesus. I mean, if we’re in Heaven we’d all be happy to be conduits of grace for the Lord if He wanted us to be; it would invigorate the body on Earth as well. Based on the article it seems like that is what the Church is teaching even if we’d explain it different using words.
 
RoseScented said:
Ok, the article articulated how I thought the Church would explain the Mediatrix of All Graces and I’m fine with it as it is stated in the article. Just the same, it is not a title of Mary that I find particularly useful for my spiritual life.
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That’s your prerogative.
This thread is actually about the “episcopal/ anglican opinion about Mary”.
The only reason I posted here about the RC teaching is that an Anglican person posted some misinformation about what the RC church teaches about Mary, and I posted to clear that up so that people reading would have the correct information about the teaching.
Some people then asked questions about it so I posted an apologetic to further clarify the teaching.

I would suggest maybe if you want to have a further discussion about Catholic Mariology and whether it works for you, you start another thread so we don’t take the Episcopalian views thread off topic, which was not my intent in posting here.
 
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No need to start a new thread. I was just finishing up my thought process with one final post since it felt like I just kinda did a hit and run with my first post. Kinda like someone listening into a conversation, jumping in with a thought, going silent, and everyone just stares waiting for the relevance or finishing thought for why you started talking.

Back to the informative and topic relevant conversation. 😆
 
Views on Mary, Saints and Statues run the gamut. From Anglo-Catholic you’re likely to find the views almost in line with Roman Catholicism. High Church you’re likely to see acceptance of all 3 but minimized from Anglo-Catholic (my own parish is like this with a few statues for the stations of the cross and Christ, a station to pray to before an icon of Mary and one for St Joseph and Saint feast days celebrated with particular emphasis on St George among others), Broad Church a mix, Low Church Anglican you’re likely to find all 3 eschewed.
 
So if a Catholic convert to anglicanism / episcopalism is it his choice to continue praying for Virgin Mary and the saints?
 
I mean you choose where you become a member so I’d say yes. Keeping in mind that even among a single congregation practice may vary. For example as mentioned my parish is high church, not quite Anglo-Catholic, but close enough that we’re constantly mistaken for a Catholic parish. But I do not pray before the statues and icons, nor for the intercession of Mary or saints. And I am a former Catholic.
 
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