Want a richer Marian understanding? Don't celebrate 8th September

Amongst the Festivals listed in the Church of Ireland BCP 2004 is the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8th September.  Missing, however, from the Calendar is the now widespread Anglican practice of observing a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 15th August (as, for example, in Common Worship, TEC 1979, and Canada's Book of Alternative Services).  

There is good reason for the Church of Ireland's refusal to conform to current Anglican practice.  When the dogma of the Assumption was proclaimed by Pius XII in 1950, the bishops of the Church of Ireland issued a superb pastoral letter which made "our public protest against the defining, as part of the divinely-given Faith of Christ, of a doctrine ... resting as it does on no scriptural authority or historical evidence, and not even on any support from the writings of the most ancient fathers".  The pastoral letter was, indeed, a classic expression of High Church teaching, noting that the dogmatic definition of the Assumption had to be rejected by "those who are content with the ancient Rule of Faith and the primitive Church Order".  

This points to the problem with celebrating a festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the date on which the Assumption is celebrated by the Roman Catholic tradition.  At the very least, it obscures the traditional Anglican rejection of the Assumption, mindful of the Tractarian Liddon's description of the belief in the Assumption as "resting on no historical basis whatever", regarding it as "the realm of fancy".  

Common Worship hints at this when it notes "The Blessed Virgin Mary may be celebrated on 8 September instead of 15 August".  The traditional date for the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary certainly is much more appropriate for Anglicans seeking another Marian festival.  It stands apart from the teaching, iconography, and - to again quote the pastoral letter of the Irish bishops - "over-busy sentiment" associated with the Assumption.  In this case, then, the Church of Ireland BCP 2004 displays a wisdom and coherence which the rest of the Communion should heed.

That said ... the question remains whether another Marian feast is actually needed.  In 1662, the 'Nativity of the B.V. Mary' is a Black Letter Day.  Quietly and with due reserve (mindful that the details of the Blessed Virgin's birth are not narrated in Scripture), the Calendar marks the date of her nativity but without liturgical commemoration.  The Black Letter Day does, however, call to mind the Blessed Virgin and in so doing reminds us of her role in the plan of salvation.  It also acts (as do many of the Black Letter Days) as a marker of time, with the Nativity - as Clerk of Oxford notes - being 'Our Lady Day in harvest'.  

No liturgical provision is made for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in 1662 precisely because two great Marian festivals are duly commemorated: her Purification and her Annunciation.  It is worth noting how, in contrast to most contemporary Anglican liturgical calendars, both feasts are distinctively Marian in 1662: 'The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin' and 'The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary'.  These feasts also recognise the particular role of the Blessed Virgin in the mysteries of our salvation, in the Incarnation and the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord.  Her Purification is a celebration of her role in the Incarnation, proclaiming through the reality of her experience of birth that the Word truly became flesh; the Annunciation, as the collect makes clear, points us forward to the physical realities of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection, for flesh was truly assumed in order that flesh would truly die and rise again.  

The dates of both feasts indicate this, with the Purification falling at the close of the Sundays after Epiphany, and the Annunciation falling either in late Lent or early Eastertide.  This also echoes the grammar of the Creeds. In the Nicene Creed, 'incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man' is immediately followed by 'And was crucified also for us'.  In the Creeds, the Virgin Mary stands as the witness to the reality of our salvation in Incarnation and Passion.

In other words, a much deeper and profound Marian understanding is found in these feasts than in a celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.  Celebrating her Nativity can in no way match celebrating her role in the Incarnation and Passion, for in conceiving and giving birth to the Incarnate Word she stands as a sign of the fullness and reality of the redemption of humanity.   

Now consider what happens in contemporary Anglican liturgical calendars, when the name of the Blessed Virgin is removed from the title of the feasts celebrated on 2nd February and 25th March, and when her festival is regarded as falling on 15th August or 8th September.  This removes her from the central acts of the mystery of our redemption, the plan of salvation.  It is, to say the least, odd that this state of affairs should be regarded as celebrating a 'higher' Marian understanding than the provisions of 1662.  The reverse is actually the case, for celebrating her birth on 8th September or her falling asleep on 15th August carries none of the significance of her integral role in the plan of salvation, an integral role explicitly celebrated in the Marian feasts of 2nd February and 25th March.

A Black Letter Day is most appropriate, then, for 8th September (and 8th December).  When saying the Te Deum at Mattins, the Magnificat at Evensong, and the Creed at both offices on this day, we can recall with thanksgiving the birth of the Mother of Our Lord.  It is, however, on 2nd February and 25th March that we particularly celebrate her role in the plan of salvation, set before us in Holy Scripture's accounts of her Annunciation and Purification, and embodying the truth of the catholic Creeds in their witness to the Incarnation.  Besides these festivals, 8th September and, indeed, even the fanciful speculations associated with 15th August, are but footnotes.  A richer, more glorious Marian understanding is found in 2nd February and 25th March being our festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

(The stained glass window is the Annunciation window in Belfast Cathedral.)