They were used to a female presence in the Godhead, so they took the mother goddess, familiar in the Middle East, changed her name and put Mary there. They took away her spear and placed a baby in her arms, all with a view to relevance. In every generation the Church faces a real danger of making microscopic moves towards relevance which over time – even hundreds of years – take it so far off course that a major shift is required to bring it back to where it should be.
Liam Goliger (ed Greg Haslam)