Anglican group opposes Catholic teaching on Mary

The Anglican group Church Society has issued a statement criticizing the recent ARCIC report on Mary in the Anglican and Catholic communities.

The group writes:

“Roman Catholic teaching has no warrant in scripture and the Anglican Church’s teaching is that the church is subject to scripture."

Holy Scripture, they argue does not call for us to praise or bless Mary.

“The conclusions are entirely inconsistent with the historic formularies of the Church of England (The 39 Articles), which state, inter alia, that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation with the consequence that whatever is not read in or capable of being proven from Scripture cannot be demanded from any person to be believed as an article of faith.”

While I disagree these statements, I think it is important that they be put into the open. Any moves toward reconciliation do indeed need to be based on a common understanding of what is being agreed to and any steps toward ecumenical agreement will be disasters if they result in new schisms among the various churches. Let's come to common agreement within our faith traditions first.