By Victor Ochieng
The use of a gender-neutral address is sweeping across different sectors of our society. Now, the same is seeping into our churches, and it’s not just about how the clergy address congregants, but how they address God too. It’s been common practice in many churches to refer to God as “He” and “Lord.” However, the Church of Sweden isn’t happy with that anymore and have sent out a word to its clergy to start using the more gender-neutral “God.”
This is one of the many amendments made to the national Evangelical Lutheran church’s 31-year-old handbook that spells out how their services are conducted in terms of hymns, language, and liturgy among other aspects of worship.
The decision was arrived after an eight-day meeting that brought together the church’s 251-member decision making body. The Thursday resolution is expected to go into effect on May 20, 2018, on the Christian holiday of the Pentecost.
The church, headquartered in Uppsala, boasts of 6.1 million members in a country whose general population is 10 million. The former state church is led by a woman, Archbishop Antje Jackelen.
Speaking to Sweden’s TT news agency, Jackelen said conversation around the use of a more gender-neutral language has been around for decades now, going back to as early as 1986.
“Theologically, for instance, we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human,” Jackelén said.
The announcement by the body didn’t go without attracting criticism. Speaking to Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper in Denmark, Christer Pahlmblad, an associate theology professor at Sweden’s Lund University, said the decision to introduce the new language in the church’s address to God was “undermining the doctrine of the Trinity and the community with the other Christian churches”.
He added that the move “really isn’t smart if the Church of Sweden becomes known as a church that does not respect the common theology heritage.”
Commenting on the development, one user on The Old Black Church Blog said, “And so our falling away continues. Every day we find ways to foolishly turn away from HIM.” And another wrote, “We are truly in the last days. This is what happens when a church is devoid of The Holy Spirit.”
It’s quite unfortunate that a church can go to the extent of making such a decision. Nevertheless, we can all see that Christ is around the corner and all such blasphemies and evil things are bound to happen in fulfillment of prophecies.
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