A joint statement on the “understanding of the place of Mary in the doctrine and life of the Church” will be released by an international delegation of Anglicans and Roman Catholics at a meeting in Seattle in the USA on 16 May. The Anglican Communion News Service announced the forthcoming statement, adding that the document which has as its title “Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ” “draws together the fruits of five years of work by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), a dialogue officially sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council and by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity”. “The theologians who constitute the Commission include bishops, clergy, religious and laypersons from 10 different countries. The May 16 event will be hosted by Seattle Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett, Roman-Catholic co-chair of ARCIC. Archbishop Brunett will be joined by his Anglican co-chair, Archbishop Peter Carnley, Primate of the Anglican church of Australia.” In Europe, the declaration on Mary (the ‘Seattle Statement’) will be presented in Westminster Abbey in London on 19 May.
