Our Lady and the quest for unity

There is a certain happy irony in the fact that the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion have now decided to press ahead with a proposed joint agreement on the Virgin Mary. The decision comes at a time of crisis in relations between the two communions, and it is remarkable that it is an ancient source of controversy which has emerged as a new focus of unity.
A few centuries ago Mary was a locus of violent division between the Catholic Church and the emerging Church of England. Ruined shrines and empty niches across the country testify to the ferocity of the effort to destroy the Marian devotion of the English people. The Thirty-Nine Articles — the Church of England's attempt to define itself in the wake of the controversies of the sixteenth century — forbade the invocation of the saints and, therefore, of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Nevertheless, a certain devotion to Our Lady remained alive in the Church of England. Many parish churches retained their original dedication to St Mary and High Church Anglicans, notably the seventeenth century Caroline Divines, insisted on the holiness of the Mother of God. And since the Oxford Movement, a growing number of Anglican theologians have come to accept the Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
The emergence of Mary as a point of ecumenical convergence was anticipated as long ago as the 1960s. That was the decade that Martin Gillett, and other like-minded Christians, founded the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This interdenominational society was created "to advance the study at various levels of the place of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church under Christ and to promote ecumenical devotion".
The forthcoming document on Mary by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) will mark a significant step forward on one of the most contentious issues in English Christian history. Although we do not yet know what it will say, those who have seen the draft document describe it as a beautiful reflection on the place of Our Lady in the Anglican and Catholic traditions. The statement is likely to note growing agreement over the identity and role of the Virgin Mary and to call for new efforts to resolve outstanding differences. There are both Catholics and Anglicans who view the forthcoming document as a minor issue in ecumenical relations. These hard-headed ecumenical realists point out that there is currently little chance of a major breakthrough in the search for unity between Catholics and Anglicans. The Vatican has, after all, suspended the work of the new ecumenical body, the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM), following the consecration of Canon Gene Robinson as the Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire.
But at the same time, the Vatican has permitted ARCIC to move forward with the statement on Mary. So while there is a necessary pause for reflection on the "ecclesiological concerns" raised by Bishop Robinson's appointment, ARCIC is given the chance to prove that dialogue is not an openended process that will never result in meaningful conclusions.
When the report is published in late January it should become clear that Our Lady is no mere side issue in the quest for unity. The attitudes of the various Christian denominations towards Mary are closely linked to their beliefs on the Incarnation, the Church, grace, justification, Scripture, revelation and papal If there is a substantial level of accord on Our Lady between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion then it may be possible to achieve agreement on these related issues. It is for this that Catholics in England — Our Lady's Dowry — must continue to pray.