The Church of England is set to debate whether it’s acceptable to refer to God with gender-neutral pronouns, in order to be more “inclusive.”
In a meeting of the Liturgical Commission, the body that develops the wording used in church services, Rev Joanna Stobart asked for an update “on the steps being taken to develop more inclusive language in our authorised liturgy.”
Stobart demanded that the Church 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 Dr Michael Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield and vice-chair of the commission, explained that the Church of England been “exploring the use of gendered language in relation to God for several years,” and that a new project done with the Faith and Order Commission “on gendered language will begin” in the spring.
However, Ipgrave noted that “in common with other potential changes to authorised liturgical provision, changing the wording and number of authorised forms of absolution would require a full Synodical process for approval.”
In a statement, a spokesman for the Church of England said that the idea of thinking of God as gender-neutral was “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. As part of its regular programme of work for the next five years, the Liturgical Commission has asked the Faith and Order Commission to work with it on looking at these questions. There are absolutely no plans to abolish or substantially revise currently authorised liturgies, and no such changes could be made without extensive legislation.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in 2018 that “all human language about God is inadequate and to some degree metaphorical. God is not a father in exactly the same way as a human being is a father. God is not male or female. God is not definable.” To him, God is someone that is perfect and “loves me unconditionally.”
There aren't many specifics on the project yet, but we'll keep you updated as we hear more. pic.twitter.com/brmP53XZs7
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However, many critics have slammed the gender-neutral plans, including Rev Dr Ian Paul, who said that the move would be a clear abandonment of Church of England doctrine.
“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,” Paul said.
“I just don’t think we should be misgendering God,” quipped Father Marcus Walker. “He’s made clear what his preferred pronouns are – especially in his incarnation – so maybe we should just use them.”
Dr Chris Sugden, the chairman of Anglican Mainstream, said that a key point for the Church of England was the authority of scripture. “Jesus told us ‘when you pray, say Our Father.’ Was Jesus wrong?” Sugden asked.
Tim Dieppe, of Christian Concern, said that the plans to refer to God in gender-neutral terms made it clear that the Church had been “so captured by woke ideology and transgender ideology” that they have “very clearly and obviously” departed from the core tenets of the faith without even realising it:
“We worship God as a Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s how He’s revealed himself, and Jesus came to Earth as a man, and rose again, as a man. To say that, oh well… we worship Mother, Sister, and Holy Spirit. I’m sorry, but that’s now a different god. That’s something else. You’re now creating a different religion… You have very clear Church doctrines.. and they’re designed to try and protect the faith and say this is what we believe, and if you don’t believe that, you ought to be disciplined, or you ought to leave…
The Church of England is considering alternatives to referring to God as “He” after priests asked to use gender-neutral terms.
Christian Concern's Tim Dieppe: "The Church has become so captured by woke ideology they don't realise where they've got to."@JuliaHB1 | @CConcern pic.twitter.com/iXjFBBOUAH
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Valiant News reported earlier this year that Bingo Allison, the first non-binary priest in the Church of England, was accused of “grooming” children, by “normalising” being LGBT, after critics noted they enjoy talking to children about LGBT issues.
In July of last year, the Church confirmed that they have no definition of a woman on the books, despite still opposing same-sex marriage, “which reflects the fact that until fairly recently definitions of this kind were thought to be self-evident, as reflected in the marriage liturgy,” as noted by Dr Robert Innes, the Bishop in Europe.
