Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Church of England May Go Gender-Neutral: So, What Happens to "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit"?
PJ Media ^ | 02/09/2023 | Lincoln Brown

Posted on 02/09/2023 7:32:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Will “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” be replaced with “Mother, Daughter, and Holy Spiritess?” Or none of the above? The Church of England is debating going gender-neutral, not because there is biblical precedent for it, but probably because all of the cool kids are doing it.

By way of total disclosure, I was born and raised in the Episcopal Church, which is a direct descendant of the Church of England. I was an altar boy, a term that was changed to “acolyte” when girls started serving on the altar. I was a member of the church well into my 30s when I began dabbling in agnosticism and Buddhism, before becoming an Evangelical and eventually Greek Orthodox.

As someone who grew up in the Episcopal Church with a feminist mother, I honestly never gave the idea of women priests a second thought. At one point, a prayer addressed to the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” had the phrase “and of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel” spontaneously added. It didn’t phase me in the least.

And as I entered the ordination process, I occasionally went to conferences and retreats, because that’s what everyone does. Often I was one of the few men there. On one occasion, I was the only man at one of these gatherings. I got a distinct impression that I was being tolerated, but not welcomed. One of the speakers stood up and asserted that Jesus did not begin his ministry at the direction of God, but rather of Mary. She cited the wedding in Cana in which Mary asks Jesus to fix the wine situation as proof. In her estimation, Jesus could not start his work until his mother told him to do so. Well, whatever works for you, I guess.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: anglican; genderneutral; lgbt
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 02/09/2023 7:32:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Just the News reports that the Right Rev. Dr. Michael Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield, will lead a commission to oversee the transition to neutral language this spring. Ipgrave says that priests have been wrestling with the issue of gendered language for years. Some priests have altered the Lord’s Prayer to say “Our Father and Mother” and have decided that God’s pronouns are they/them. The Rev. Chantal Noppen commented, “God is not male. Certainly not the white cis male with a beard, sitting on a cloud we seem to reduce and limit God to so often. God is far bigger than a binary sense of gender allows.”

Meanwhile, Rev. Ian Paul has warned that playing the pronoun game with God would move the doctrine of the church away from the Bible. He also noted that changing “Father” to “Mother” or some sort of neutral designation would create a loss of meaning.

Fox News said that Rev. Joanna Stobart wrote:

Please could the Liturgical Commission provide an update on the steps being taken to develop more inclusive language in our authorized liturgy and to provide more options for those who wish to use authorized liturgy and 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?


2 posted on 02/09/2023 7:33:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Old One, the Young One, and the Rest is Everywhere Other One.


3 posted on 02/09/2023 7:34:12 AM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable STILL )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The church of England throws God to the curb and invents a new galse god in their own image tO placate myriad sinners who want their cake and eat it too. Only they will find out in the end they d9nt have a slice of the cake because they should their souls to political correctness, and are now worshipping a false god


4 posted on 02/09/2023 7:35:35 AM PST by Bob434
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: drSteve78

I am not taking the Lord’s Name in vain. I AM mocking the Philistines.


5 posted on 02/09/2023 7:35:40 AM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable STILL )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Just come all the way out and worship Satan as your God openly. He’ll be all for any “inclusive “ language you want.


6 posted on 02/09/2023 7:44:37 AM PST by Orosius (A)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
So, What Happens to "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit"?

Easy answer: It will go out the door with parishioners like ME who flee churches that go "woke" like this.

Ditched my traditional church after it went "woke" a few years ago and never looked back. All that was left were elderly parishioners in their 80s and 90s, all the families left, including ours.

7 posted on 02/09/2023 7:47:06 AM PST by Bon of Babble (Rigged Elections have Consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
One of the speakers stood up and asserted that Jesus did not begin his ministry at the direction of God, but rather of Mary. She cited the wedding in Cana in which Mary asks Jesus to fix the wine situation as proof. In her estimation, Jesus could not start his work until his mother told him to do so.

That's one of multiple reasons we believe Joseph had died before Jesus began His ministry. Instead of Mary asking Joseph to find a solution, she turned to Jesus. Another being that Jesus, not Joseph, read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:14-20). The belief is that it was Joseph's family's turn to read Scripture that day, since Jesus read it then perhaps Joseph had passed away.

By the way, back to Mary asking Jesus to help with the wine. Jesus' first response to Mary was "Woman, why do you bother me? My time has not yet come." (John 2:4). That doesn't exactly sound like Jesus sheepishly doing whatever His mother bid him to do. Sounds to me like Jesus wanted to start His ministry on God's time, not Mary's.

8 posted on 02/09/2023 7:50:25 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Father, Son, Tranny ,morphydite and the Holy Sprit ?


9 posted on 02/09/2023 7:52:07 AM PST by spincaster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

One should never confuse the COE with an actual church. They are the Patriotic Church of England. As England goes post-Christian, so does their established “church”.


10 posted on 02/09/2023 7:52:54 AM PST by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: drSteve78

There was a fad in the 1980s and 1990s of calling the Blessed Trinity “The Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier”, pandering to the radical feminists.

1) Yes, it has been going on that long.

2) It’s heresy, the term for it is “modalism”.


11 posted on 02/09/2023 7:53:01 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Parent, child and, well, I guess we can keep “Holy Spirit”.


12 posted on 02/09/2023 7:54:53 AM PST by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

And the Church of England goes to hell. Along with all the other churches that insist that God accepts homosexuality and that it’s not a sin.


13 posted on 02/09/2023 7:57:09 AM PST by JoJo354 (We need to get to work, Conservatives!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Holy Trinity as They, Them, Those.

What horrible mush. Flaccid and mired in toxic estrogen, steeped in Socialist ethos and Gaia worship.

Buncha dang fools.


14 posted on 02/09/2023 7:58:13 AM PST by Quentin Quarantino
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Church of England on its never ending quest to make God into the image of sin filled man.


15 posted on 02/09/2023 7:59:22 AM PST by robel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind


“Father, Son, and the Holy Spigot”
16 posted on 02/09/2023 8:01:08 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Creator/Redeemer/Sanctifier
I recall seeing a Lutheran college website that used these terms, as opposed to Father Son and Holy Spirit.


17 posted on 02/09/2023 8:02:16 AM PST by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: married21

So, what happens to the terms Jesus uses for himself?

SON OF GOD, SON OF MAN?


18 posted on 02/09/2023 8:06:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
but probably because all of the cool kids are doing it.

Yes, a lot of this junk is a fad. I'd like to think it will pass, but I thought rap "music" would pass quickly as well.

19 posted on 02/09/2023 8:07:15 AM PST by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: libertylover
but I thought rap "music" would pass quickly as well.

That, and "Bro Country".

20 posted on 02/09/2023 8:08:00 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson