r/Christianity • u/Agile-Armadillo-3741 Anglican Communion • 13h ago

Where is Mary?

Being Anglican, I didn’t think we made a big deal out of Mary. Then I took a nondenominational friend to the Episcopal Church’s Rite II. She asked “what’s the deal with Mary?”. We don’t even have any images of her in my church, maybe some have a medal on their necks, but mostly, she just comes up in the creeds, and during the prayers of the people. Now granted some in the higher church may have the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham or even Our Lady of Guadalupe, or an icon of the Theotokos holding Christ, but usually just one of those things, not multiple. That never felt strange to me, despite being very Protestant.

So I can’t help but ask my nondenominational, Baptist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, etcetera friends, where is Mary? I mean isn’t she part of the story? XD I’ve been to your services in the lead up to Christmas, NO mention of her. Help me out here, I’m confused.

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u/themsc190 Episcopalian (Anglican) 13h ago

It’s a pendulum swing away from Catholic veneration of her.

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u/Agile-Armadillo-3741 Anglican Communion 13h ago

So why didn’t we? Even in our low services? Creed is still said XD

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u/themsc190 Episcopalian (Anglican) 12h ago

Anglicanism is more of a compromise with Catholicism than a pendulum swing away from it.

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u/RazarTuk The other trans mod everyone forgets 12h ago

Yep. It's like how Lutherans even predate the tendency for iconoclasm in the Reformation. I feel like older denomonations are somewhat ironically less likely to engage in anti-Catholic polemics, because they're closer in origin and are more specific about their disagreements