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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?