Calls for God to be gender neutral

By Sifiso Sibandze

The Lord’s Prayer could soon begin with ‘Our non-gendered parent who art in heaven!’ instead of the widely known ‘Our Father who art in heaven!”

This follows an announcement by bishops of the Church of England that they are launching a major project on gendered language’s this spring which could result in the stoppage of using male pronouns ‘He’ and ‘Him’ in prayers and drop the phrase ‘Our Father’ from the Lord’s Prayer.

However, such a radical rewriting would have to be agreed upon by the whole of the church’s governing body, the General Synod, and would be fiercely resisted by traditionalists for breaking away from the words of the Bible.

However, some local priests strongly criticized the proposed move by the Church of England of referring to God in ‘non-gendered’ language. They said it would be very illogical to break away from the words of the Bible which had existed for centuries.

President of the League of African Churches Bishop Samson Hlatjwako labelled this as an absurd move. The Bishop said God had always been referred to as a Father which automatically means he is male not a woman.

“The Bible teaches that the Father sent the Son into the world. In other words, God sent Jesus. This suggests that there has never been a doubt about God’s gender or Jesus’ gender. They have always been male and not female. God is also referred to as the King of Kings not Queen of Queens which also tells us that he is male,” Hlatjwako said.

Bishop Bhekibandla Vilakati of the Jericho Church in Zion shared Hlatjwako’s sentiments that there is no doubt that God is a ‘He’ and referring to him in a non-gendered language would be tantamount to belittling him.

“How can you pray to someone whom you are not sure of ‘his’ gender? Biologically, something is either male or female and there is nothing that can be ‘neutral’ or of both sexes,” Bishop Vilakati said.

He said what the Church of England is proposing is illogical and a disgrace to God as it will mislead people and might end up spreading to the global Christian community.

The landmark move was revealed last week in a question presented to the committee that develops the wording used in church services, called the Liturgical Commission. According to the Daily Mail, the Bishop of Lichfield, Rev Michael Ipgrave, said: “We have been exploring the use of gendered language in relation to God for several years, in collaboration with the Faith and Order Commission.”

The proposal was welcomed by a group that campaigns for ‘gender justice’ in the Church of England. The Daily Mail quoted Rev Joanna Stobart, a vicar in the diocese of Guildford, Surrey as saying that some clergy want to refer to God without saying He or Him, particularly in prayers of forgiveness for sins.

But Synod member Rev Dr Ian Paul said: “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.”