I remember with amusement a particular incident at one of the great holy days of the Christian year, the Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I was in conversation with an organist in one of the principal parishes of the diocese and I asked him over the phone, 'What hymns are you going to pick for Mary?' In a little sense of bewilderment, the organist said to me, 'Mary who?'

Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior and God, is often the focus of devotion, prayer and commemoration during the month of May. There are many ancient reasons for this and, in many parts of the Communion where there are churches of the Catholic tradition, May is always a time to look at the role of Mary in the life of the Church. One of the great feasts that honor Mary falls in May, in the celebration in the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. More and more, Church calendars are now including, as the principal celebration of Mary, the date 15 August, the day that is set aside to celebrate Mary's being reunited with her son in glory. Mary is often a point of grave concern and discussion among certain Anglicans. Do we commemorate her too much or do we neglect her to our fault? How do we view the role of Mary in the plan of Salvation? How can we come to grips with the fact that indeed she could have said 'No' to the Annunciation? Many of our churches in the Anglican Communion have beautiful stained glass windows, icons and images, as well as devotional organizations, that are dedicated to understanding Mary. It is a shame when devotion to Mary is used as a divisive issue, whether between those of the Protestant tradition and the Catholic tradition or amongst those who consider themselves traditionalists or modern Catholics. Mary is for everyone. She is not to be confined to a box of our own design. For many years in the Church she was the only female image that we had to ponder.

Of course, there are several thousand Anglican churches dedicated to St Mary, yet I would ask you to pray in particular for the work of three of the shrines that are run by Anglicans in Great Britain. They are: Our Lady and Three Kings in Haddington, Scotland; Our Lady of Pew, Westminster; and, of course, the renowned Nazareth of England, Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk. Just the other day we received word from the Bishop in Jerusalem that Christians were being prohibited by Muslim extremists to attend church on Easter Day in Nazareth, the place of the Annunciation, the place that Jesus called home. How sad; I'm sure Jesus weeps, Mary weeps and the communion of Saints weep when such bitterness and conflict attack the people of God in such a holy city.

I hope that the following words from Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal Church, USA, will give us some perspective on how Anglicans can view St Mary in the life of the church.

"Clearly, the honor and devotion which we accord to Our Lady derive not from her exalted place in the Gospel accounts, but, rather, from what she in her song, Magnificat, terms her 'lowliness'. Her profound and human struggle to yield herself to the complete undoing of her world and a safe and predictable future leads her to say, 'yes' to the deeply disturbing message of the angel at the Annunciation. The price of that assent to bear the Word takes her away from home into exile in Egypt, and brings with it the promise that 'her heart will be pierced' because of the child she has been chosen to bear."

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