Gender Neutral God? Church of England to Launch Liturgical Pronoun Project

Cima da Conegliano, God the Father
Wikipedia Commons
Kurt Zindulka

The increasingly woke Church of England is set to begin a project looking into using more gender neutral language for God in order to supposedly create a more inclusive understanding of the deity.

Bishops at the Church of England are planning on launching a project “on gendered language” surrounding God later this year, which could see phrases such as “Our Father” scrapped in favour of neutral or feminine alternatives after some within the church have claimed that associating God with men has resulted in sexism within the religion.

The latest woke endeavour was spurred by a request from Rev Joanna Stobart who asked Church leaders if there was a way “to develop more inclusive language in our authorised liturgy”.

She went on to ask bishops “to provide more options for those who wish to use authorised liturgy and speak of God in a non-gendered way, particularly in authorised absolutions where many of the prayers offered for use refer to God using male pronouns.”

In response, the Rt Rev Michael Ipgrave, the Bishop of Lichfield and the vice-chairman of the Liturgical Commission said per The Telegraph: “We have been exploring the use of gendered language in relation to God for several years, in collaboration with the Faith and Order Commission.

“After some dialogue between the two commissions in this area, a new joint project on gendered language will begin this spring.”

The move was criticised by Rev Ian Paul, who serves in the General Synod as well as the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Rev Paul claimed that while the use of male pronouns for God should not be interpreted as implying God is a male, he noted that the Bible primarily uses masculine pronouns for God for a reason and that “male and female imagery is not interchangeable.”

“The fact that God is called ‘Father’ can’t be substituted by ‘Mother’ without changing meaning, nor can it be gender-neutralised to ‘Parent’ without loss of meaning. Fathers and mothers are not interchangeable but relate to their offspring in different ways.

“If the Liturgical Commission seeks to change this, then in an important way they will be moving the doctrine of the Church away from being grounded in the Scriptures.”

Yet, the move does fall in line with the left-wing leanings of Archbishop Justin Welby, who has himself previously declared that God is “gender neutral“. To the chagrin of more conservative practitioners, Welby has frequently inserted himself in the political debates of the day, particularly on issues such as illegal immigration and climate change.

The announcement of the pronoun project comes ahead of a vote in the General Synod, the elected governing body of the Church, to determine whether priests can bless same-sex marriages in the country. While the vote would not allow for churches to officiate homosexual weddings, the rule change would allow a priest to offer “God’s blessing” for civil partnerships or marriages in a church.

Commenting on the gender-neutral God project, a spokesman for the Church of England said: “This is nothing new. Christians have recognised since ancient times that God is neither male nor female, yet the variety of ways of addressing and describing God found in scripture has not always been reflected in our worship.

“There has been greater interest in exploring new language since the introduction of our current forms of service in contemporary language more than 20 years ago.

“There are absolutely no plans to abolish or substantially revise currently authorised liturgies, and no such changes could be made without extensive legislation.”

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