In Tuesday’s Life of Jesus class, we were talking about how some Christians, including Roman Catholics, request intercession from saints, such as St. Mary.
1 Timothy 2:5 tells us:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
Jesus is the one and only mediator. The Bible does not leave a place for any other agent between a believer and God.
Article 22 (of the Anglican 39 Articles) states:
The Roman [Catholic] doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, worshipping and adoration as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saint, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture; but rather repugnant to the word of God.
While individual Anglicans are not unanimous on this topic, Will Briggs makes the case that the Anglican Church does not believe that praying to the saints is okay:
If God is not the object of our prayers, and the agent of our prayers, then we are asserting that we can reach out to God in our own strength, or through the strength of someone else. This undermines the work of Christ and suggests that we do not have absolute need of [him] – something that goes against the heart of the Christian faith. Christ alone is our mediator.
We do respect the “Saints” as particular exemplars of the faith and count them amongst the “church triumphant” – but we count them as forebears – brothers and sisters in service, not the captains that we follow.