God's Not Male, at Least Not at One Church

Scottish Episcopal bishops OK with removing gender references
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 7, 2010 1:06 PM CDT
God's Not Male, at Least Not at One Church
One church has a new service that does not refer to God as male.   (©kevingessner)

God is no longer a "he," at least according to the Scottish Episcopal Church. Its bishops recently debuted a new order of service that removes all masculine references to God, including but not limited to "Lord," "he," "his," and "him," the Daily Mail reports. Priests who have problems with the traditional liturgy can use the new service, but some religious figures aren't too happy with it. "It is political correctness," and "quite unnecessary," one reverend says.

Even the word "mankind" has been replaced with the word "world." And how to deal with the especially common use of "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost"? Those references have been changed to "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier." (Direct Biblical quotes remain unchanged.) "God is above and beyond human gender," says another reverend. "We are not saying God is not masculine. God is also feminine. The problem is trying to use human language to describe the indescribable."
(More God stories.)

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