MEMBERS of the Anglican Church are being asked to accept that controversial Roman Catholic teachings regarding the Virgin Mary are “authentic expressions of Christian belief”.

The proposals, attacked by senior evangelicals, are in a document agreed by theologians and prelates of the churches and published in the US last night. Mary: Hope and Grace in Christ, introduced at a Roman Catholic Mass in Seattle by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, is to be published in Britain at Westminster Abbey on Thursday.

The document, published after six years of discussion, in effect seeks to backtrack on centuries of Anglican dissent over the place of Mary in the Catholic Church by giving credence to dogmas rejected in the Reformation. It states that there is “no continuing theological reason for ecclesial division” over the role of the Virgin Mary. “We do not consider the practice of asking Mary and the saints to pray for us as communion-dividing,” it says. Private devotions inspired by apparitions of Mary are “acceptable”.

In the passage likely to cause most dissent, the document says the infallible dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption — the teachings that Mary was herself conceived “without sin” and that on death she was “assumed” body and soul into Heaven — are “consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures”.

The document is not intended itself to be authoritative but to be a basis for discussion. Its authors admit openly to the hope that the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will recognise a “common faith” concerning Mary as outlined in the paper.

This would mean that the Marian teaching of the Roman Church would come to be seen as an “authentic expression” of Christian belief by Anglicans, and vice versa.

The Catholic Bishop of Nottingham, Malcolm McMahon, one of 18 delegates from ten countries who served on the commission, said that the document showed that Mary need no longer be considered an obstacle to unity between Anglicans and Catholics. He said: “What we have done is put down a paving stone on the road to Christian unity.”

The document is published at a sensitive time in Anglican-Catholic relations. The late Pope, John Paul II, was noted for his devotion to Mary. He also made clear his dismay over the direction the Anglican Communion was taking over the ordination of women and, more recently, of homosexuals.

Unity talks between the two churches foundered and the publication of the Mary document was delayed after the US Anglican Church consecrated the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Bishop Frank Griswold, the US Anglican primate, was forced to resign as co-chairman of the commission. The Australian primate, Archbishop Peter Carnley, replaced him. Bishop Griswold was present at the publication of the document last night at St James’s Catholic Cathedral in Seattle, seat of the group’s Catholic co-chair, Archbishop Alexander Brunett.

The election of Pope Benedict XVI, who as the Vatican’s doctrinal enforcer Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger dismissed Protestant communities as not “proper” Churches, has nevertheless put unity back on the agenda. Last week the Vatican praised the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for adopting a firmly orthodox stance over sexuality.

The Mary document will reinforce fears among evangelicals that the Catholic Church is prepared to consider unity with the Anglicans strictly on its own terms. The Rev Rod Thomas, an evangelical who speaks for the Reform conservative grouping, said the document represented an attempt to “shoehorn into Scripture” the Marian dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.

He said: “If Mary has been wholly and completely assumed into Heaven and we are able to pray to her, it goes completely against the grain of Jesus Christ being our great high priest who intercedes on our behalf with the Father.

“It has become clear that we can only find common ground through theological fudge. That can never be a basis for moving forward in unity. The document goes nowhere near addressing the understandings of revelation, of scriptural authority and the uniqueness of Christ that were the cornerstones of the Reformation.”

DISPUTED DOGMA

Immaculate Conception

Often confused with the act that led up to the Virgin Birth, this infallible dogma, defined in 1854 by Pius IX, states that Mary was from the moment of her conception “kept free from all stain of original sin”. The Catholic Church also teaches that Mary remained inviolate after parturition, or a virgin even after giving birth to Jesus. By contrast, Protestants take references in Mark and Luke’s gospels to Jesus’s brothers as evidence that Mary went on to have more children

Assumption

The belief that on completion of her earthly life, Mary was “in body and soul assumed into heavenly glory”. Defined by Pius XII in 1950, the feast is celebrated by Catholics on August 15. It was deleted from the calendar of the Church of England in 1561, although five other feasts associated with Mary remained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Anglican reverence for Mary also continues with the use of the Magnificat in Evening Prayer and in the unchanged dedications of many churches

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