The Gender Neutral, Woke Church of England By Richard Miller (London)
Nothing surprises me anymore. Bishops at the Church of England are planning on launching a project “on gendered language.” The aim is to create an inclusive and woke approach to the deity. Thus, “Our Father” is out, because of “sexism,” which these elites of the Church see as a terrible legacy of the Church. Of course, that is part of the woke gender agenda that sees males and females as socially constructed. Clearly, those opposed to all this need to literally vote with their feet, and go to other churches, or start up a home church, like the early Christians did. Today, the persecutors are the woke elites, not the Romans and their bosses.
“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.”
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