Feast of the Birth of Mary/Nativity of the Theotokos

The Orthodox, Anglican, and Roman Catholic Churches celebrate today as the day of the birthday of Mary, mother of Jesus.  She was declared in 431 by the Council of Ephesus to be the Theotokos, literally in Greek "the God-bearer" or "the God-birther."  Those of some other Christian traditions prefer to call Mary the "Mother of God" or the "Mother of Jesus" because they are bothered by the elevation of any human to what they see as a semi-divine state.  They believe that Mary was blessed to be Jesus' mother, but that she was not a divine or even semi-divine figure.  She was what Jesus called her, a woman (John 19:26).