Reflections on the Feast of the Annunciation
By Bryan Hollon
March 25, 2025
Today, March 25th, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation—that pivotal moment when the angel Gabriel appeared to a young virgin named Mary with news that would forever alter the course of human history. Nine months before Christmas, we commemorate the conception of Christ in Mary's womb, marking the beginning of the Incarnation.
The Significance of Mary in Anglican Faith
As Anglicans, our approach to Mary is grounded in the biblical revelation. We honor her without idolizing her; we recognize her significance without embracing the full suite of Marian dogmas developed in later Roman Catholic tradition. But we certainly should not ignore her.
When I became an Anglican, I understood that I was claiming a heritage that includes everything true professed by Christians in every time and place. As the Anglican Church in North America affirms: "To be an Anglican is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a 'Mere Christian,' at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled."
This "mere Christianity"—to borrow C.S. Lewis's phrase—is not a watered-down faith but rather, as Lewis himself wrote, "something positive, self-consistent, and inexhaustible." It represents that core consensus that has sustained the Church through ages of division and controversy.
In this Anglican vision, Mary holds a place of honor as the Theotokos, the God-bearer, without whom the Incarnation would not have been possible. Her story is not peripheral to the gospel but central to it.
The Biblical Mary
The heart of Mary's story is found in Luke 1, where the angel Gabriel announces that she will conceive and bear the Son of God. Her response in verse 38 encapsulates the essence of faithful discipleship: "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."
This declaration—her great "fiat" ("let it be")—makes Mary an exemplary model of New Testament faith. She demonstrates what it means to respond to God's call with complete trust and obedience, even when that call seems impossible or dangerous.
The Annunciation reveals something profound about God's method of redemption. He does not impose His will; He invites our response of faith. Mary's "yes" was freely given - a graced cooperation by the power of the Spirit that echoes through the ages as an example for all believers.
Mary as Dwelling Place
What makes Mary's role so significant is that she became, quite literally, a dwelling place for God. As Gabriel explains in Luke 1:35: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God."
As we were reminded in Trinity Chapel this morning by our student preacher, Melissa Patton, Luke’s message deliberately echoes the Old Testament accounts of God's presence in the Tabernacle and Temple. Indeed, the Greek word used for "overshadow" (episkiazō) in Luke's account has the same theological significance as the terms used in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) for God's glory covering the sacred spaces of Israel. In this light, Mary's womb becomes the new Holy of Holies—the dwelling place of God's presence on earth. She becomes, in this sense, the first Christian—the first human being to have our savior - Jesus Christ - dwelling within her.
This theological parallel would have been immediately recognizable to first-century Jewish readers and emphasizes the profound continuity between God's presence in the Temple and the Incarnation of Christ. Just as in Exodus 40:34-35 where "the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle," so too was Mary filled with the divine presence, inaugurating a new era in salvation history.
This theological reality provides a pattern for all Christian life. Like Mary, we too are called to become dwelling places for God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?"
The Communion of Saints
One reason we remember Mary and other exemplars of faith is that Christianity is fundamentally communal. As my former professor and mentor, Ralph Wood so often said, “there is no such thing as a solitary Christian.” As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, we are all members of one body, giving and receiving in mutual dependence.
But this body transcends time and space. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are knitted together with all Christians—those who lived long ago, those who live today, and those who will live long after we are gone. In the words of Hebrews 12:1, we are "surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses."
Mary stands as a faithful witness within this great company of saints because she exemplifies the faithful response to grace that all Christians are called to emulate.
Addressing Concerns About Marian Devotion
Some Protestants may feel uncomfortable with any emphasis on Mary, fearing that it distracts from Christ. This concern is not without historical justification, as there have been times and places where Marian piety has seemed to eclipse Christology.
However, the celebration of Mary can and should always point to Christ, never away from Him. Mary herself would be the first to direct our attention away from herself and toward her Son, as she does at the wedding at Cana: "Do whatever he tells you" (John 2:5).
The Anglican tradition has generally maintained that the four Marian dogmas defined by the Roman Catholic Church (Perpetual Virginity, Mother of God, Immaculate Conception, and Bodily Assumption) are not all required belief, since all but one lack biblical warrant. However, the title "Mother of God" (Theotokos) is non-controversial among Anglicans and has the strongest ecumenical and patristic support. It is consistent with the biblical witness and was affirmed at the Council of Ephesus in 431 as a necessary safeguard for orthodox Christology.
Mary for Today
On this Feast of the Annunciation, we remember Mary because of, among other things, her powerful example of faithful discipleship. Her "let it be to me according to your word" remains the archetypal response to God's call.
Like the Tabernacle and Temple before her, when God entered into Mary, it was akin to storming the beaches of Normandy on the way to conquer all of Europe. Mary represents the beachhead of God's redemptive campaign—the first territory reclaimed in the divine reconquest of all creation.
We who follow Christ are further steps in that advance when we say, “let it be done to us according to [His] word." And as Revelation 21:3 promises, one day God's work will be complete: "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man!"
The Rev. Dr. Bryan Hollon, is president of Trinity Anglican Seminary in Ambridge, PA.
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