I don't see a problem in this, although it is probably more a personal thing rather than official practice in Lutheran or Episcopal churches. On the other hand I have experienced invocation of the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary numerous times in C of E services, so nothing completely alien to Anglicanism.
It just depends on the Episcopal Church. There's only one priest in the whole diocese that I've seen that actually mentions the BVM in the canon of the Eucharist, and then very rarely. I think some of the more evangelical oriented Episcopalians would object to it. It's quite ironic because many of the services are held in the "Mary Chapel" and there's a huge stained-glass window of Mary sitting on a throne holding, wearing a crown, holding Christ.
I can see why the Reformers would criticise mediaeval practice of invoking the saints - it seems that prayers to the saints had almost completely taken over personal piety at that time and people were invoking the saints rather than praying to God. I don't see that danger today in Anglican or Lutheran churches at all.
I can understand the concern of the Reformers too- our worship and spirituality always needs to be Christ-centered, although I think they threw the baby out with the bathwater.
I look at early Church fathers and I don't see any of them commenting against the practice. These guys were sticklers about heresy. And yet, no commentary against it, in fact most of them seem to have believed it themselves. If it were incompatible with their faith, I would have expected a rejection of the practice early on.
One thing I see appealing about veneration of Mary- she is a woman. Women have said they find her more approachable. This isn't something against Jesus, it's just the way it is. Just like sometimes you'ld ask a friend to pray for you instead of just praying yourself. Sometimes its dangerous to over-rationalize faith. I also wonder if we had recognized Mary as an intercessor, if there wouldn't be less push to try to de-gender God (which I see as very problematic and threatening to orthodoxy).
I know sometimes my faith has been so weak I just go to church and ask a priest to pray for me- something I was too embarrassed to do in the past. It's helped me stay this far. I can't imagine what it would be like demanding everybody jump into the deep end and start praying to God straight off the cuff. It would probably be very intimidating. In fact some monastics considered that form of prayer something that truly only comes out of years and years of faith. I wonder how many people Protestants are excluding from the Church by demanding so much intensity in their faith? It's true in Eastern Europe and Latin America there are a lot of nominal Christians, but within than nominal Christianity lies a lot of spiritually beneficial goodness nonetheless. I'd prefer it to the rampant, sterile secularism of the West.
I suppose what we really need is a faith that bridges both. In my estimation, the current Roman Catholic Church does a poor job of evangelizing people beyond the folk religion. And sometimes that folk religion becomes very misguided (the cult of Jesus Malverde and Santa Muerte come to mind).
