All these things cause in Protestants an ingrained dissent that
amounts almost to an aversion for special honouring of Mary.
We feel no coldness toward the mother of our Lord as the
other communions believe we do. But there is abhorrence of
what too often accompanies the honouring of her: the senti-
mental invocations, the suspension of the rational faculty, most
of all the making of Mary the object of prayers that ought to
be addressed to God.

It will not do, however, for Protestants just to turn away in
aversion and say that this special regard for Mary does not
deserve consideration. The fact is that scholarly minds find
values in it as well as the less tutored devout. Every branch of
the Christian Church has the responsibility to try to understand
the faith of other communions in the Christian fellowship. It
can do us no harm to examine the cult of Mary to see what
legitimately Christian ideas it may express. In the interests of
Christian unity it may be possible for us to be more hospitable
to some systematic honouring of her as mother of Christ. Our
minds could well be open for new spiritual insights along the
way. ^a

To the Orthodox Church the Virgin Mary belongs to the
basic truth of the Incarnation; by her continued veneration and
association with Jesus in the devotions of that Church it is felt
that the approach of God to men is made more intimate. She
deserves honour for the high function of being the mother of
the Incarnate One, and it would be unworthy to lay her aside
as an instrument that is forgotten when the need is past. In
her person she "represents the whole of humanity, through the
grace of God in her all the sanctity accessible to humanity is
attained, even after the fall, in the Church of the Old Testa-
ment". ^b Her presence in the circle of devotion adds warmth
and in her and by her the feminine receives a place in piety in

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