After R. Catholic Church: Anglican Church to consider ‘gendered language’ for God

by Hans Ngala

The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, has announced that it is going to “explore the gender terms used for God in its authorized liturgy” according to Christian Today newspaper.
The topic arose during a session of the Church of England’s General Synod, it’s meeting this week in London.

The Bible contains frequent references to God as ‘Father’ and uses male pronouns, but the Rev Joanna Stobart, a female priest of the church, asked what the Church was doing to develop “more inclusive language” in its authorized liturgy.
She asked bishops to come up with “more options” for Anglicans who want to “speak of God in a non-gendered way, particularly in authorized absolutions where many of the prayers offered for use refer to God using male pronouns”.
Her remarks come shortly after Pope Benedict of the Roman Catholic Church made similarly shocking remarks, claiming that homosexuality was not a sin.
Another Anglican priest has however argued against the move, stating that “The fact that God is called ‘Father’ can’t be substituted by ‘Mother’ without changing meaning, nor can it be gender-neutralized to ‘Parent’ without loss of meaning. Fathers and mothers are not interchangeable but relate to their offspring in different ways”.
He clarified his stance against the proposed move, stating that “If the Liturgical Commission (of the Church of England) 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.”