The annual Mass and meeting of the Society of Mary/American Region welcomed Bishop Lindsay Urwin as guest speaker and marked a transition in the society’s leadership. The society met May 3 and 4 at St. Stephen’s Church in Providence, Rhode Island, attracting visitors from across the East Coast and as far away as Wisconsin.
The Rt. Rev. Lindsay Urwin, OGS, administrator of the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in England, spoke on “One Faith, Two Shrines: The Challenges and Joy of Life in Walsingham.” Bishop Urwin described the existence of two separate shrines at Walsingham ”” one for Anglicans and one for Roman Catholics ”” as a sign of the scandal of divisions within Christianity.
“The route of the procession through the Brown University campus attracted many spectators, some of whom followed it back to the church.”
I spend all my days trying to communicate effectively to college students, and there’s one thing I know about them: nothing seizes their imagination more than brass bands, Victorian hymns and ambulatory idolatry.
You might want to hold back on the charge of idolatry, jhp. Probably way more Anglicans than you realize seek, and rely on, the prayers of the saints to God on our behalf. The ancient Fathers advocate it, and the oldest known prayer to Mary, the Sub Tuum Praesidium, dates to the 2nd century. Besides which, Bp Urwin is a solid rock of Christian orthodoxy.
I would like to confirm what Ian+ has already said re: Bp Urwin’s orthodoxy. He was my bishop when we lived in England. A few years ago he took up his present post in Walsingham. His reflections on Mary have always focused on the glory of the incarnate Christ, as is hinted at in the article above. There are few people who model Marian devotion better than he does– we honor Mary as God-bearer, but our eyes are always directed from her to Christ the Lord.
Having said the above, I agree with #1 about brass bands…
For the record, I’m prepared to believe every good word about Bp Urwin … I’m quite sure his visit was a blessing.
Having said that, let’s all agree that if parading publically a garlanded statue is not idolatry, then it’s the next-closest thing. If it were not, this extraordinary act of devotion would not be so unfamiliar to classical Anglicans and mainstream Episcopalians, nor so newsworthy that it deserved mention in a press release.
Intercessory prayer and.asking the mother of Christ to pray for us is not idolatry. Parading around with statues and behaving as if these plaster images have special powers and bear any resemblance to the real human beings is idolatry. Some of the related doctrines and apparitions are sketchy, as well. The RCC says it doesn’t condone excesses but it does precious little to stop it.
Christians should acknowledge Mary’s “yes,” and her complete trust and cooperation with God is a model for us. But a lot of questionable stuff has been spun around Mary throughout the centuries, some to make Christianity sans a “goddess” understandable/palatable to pagans and various native peoples.
Ian+ at #2,
“dates to the 2nd century”? I think you will have trouble getting it any earlier than the mid-3rd century AD. Which has little relevance to the issue you and JHP were discussing, but I just thought I’d throw in my 2 cents worth on the date.