The Church of England is considering overturning centuries of religious teaching to give God a gender-neutral conscience.
The church, headed by King Charles III, confirmed on Wednesday that its Liturgical Commission had launched a special project to update future teachings.
A possible change from referring to God as “His” and “our Father” – as used at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer – was welcomed by Awakened worshipers, said the Telegraph.
“A religious misunderstanding of God as only male is the driving force behind continued discrimination and sexism against women,” an unnamed liberal Christian told a UK newspaper.
However, the Rev Ian Paul, a member of the Church of England’s Council of Archbishops, was among those who called it a step too far.
“If the Liturgical Commission tries to change that, they would be moving the church’s doctrine away from being grounded in scripture in a significant way,” he told the outlet.
He emphasized that “male and female imagery is not interchangeable,” while also claiming that critics are misreading the teachings.
“The use of male pronouns for God should not be taken to mean that God is male – which is a heresy. God is not sexist, unlike humanity,” he stressed.
“The fact that God is called ‘father’ cannot be replaced by ‘mother’ without changing the meaning, nor can it be gendered into ‘parent’ without loss of meaning. “Fathers and mothers are not interchangeable but they relate to their children in different ways,” he stressed.
“Such questions about gender language and God have been around for decades, if not centuries,” acknowledged Professor Helen King, vice-chairman of the Synod’s gender and sexuality group.
Even so, they “still have the power to react strongly,” he said.
“Obviously God is not gendered, so why do we limit our language for God in gendered ways?” he asked.
The project first came to light when a female hon. refers to God using
The commission’s vice-chairman, Bishop of Lichfield Michael Epgrave, responded that he had been “exploring the use of gendered language in reference to God for many years.”
“After some dialogue … a new collaborative project on gendered language will begin this spring,” Ipgrave wrote in a formal response.
Bishop did not respond to The Thar Telegraph’s request for more information about the project.
A spokesman for the Church of England told the Telegraph that the debate was nothing new.
“Christians have long recognized that God is neither male nor female, yet the different ways of addressing and describing God found in Scripture are not always reflected in our worship,” the church representative said. ” said a church representative.
Still, the representative insisted that any changes would only apply to future teachings.
“There are currently absolutely no plans to abolish or revise authorized places of worship, and no such changes can be made without extensive legislation,” the spokesman said.
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