Madam, - Dean Michael Burrows (May 27th) writes that Mrs Mary Stewart (May 25th) was "utterly unjust" to write of "the Church of Ireland's outright rejection" of the agreed statement from the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission - Mary - Grace and Hope in Christ.
However, while there are significant points of agreement in this text, it is important to note that the Church of Ireland's response does in fact clearly reject the ARCIC document's acceptance of the Roman Catholic dogmas of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception as consonant with Scripture.
One does not wish to accentuate differences, but they clearly do remain between the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church on these Marian dogmas.
However, the Church of Ireland does, of course, honour the Virgin with very high regard; that is clear from the various feast days related to Mary which are observed within the Church of Ireland.
The Church of Ireland also accepts, as is indicated in the response, that Mary is correctly entitled "Theotokos", that is, "bearer of God incarnate". - Yours, etc,
Canon IAN M. ELLIS, Newcastle, Co Down.