The Church of England said it's thinking about scrapping centuries of religious teachings to give God gender-neutral pronouns. .“God is not male,” Church of England Rev. Chantal Noppen told the Times on Tuesday. .“Certainly not the white cis male with a beard, sitting on a cloud we seem to reduce and limit God to so often.” .The church confirmed its Liturgical Commission launched a special project to examine updating future teachings. .Some priests have made the changes, trading references to he and him to God or they and them. They have rewritten Our Father to Our Father and Mother. .The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said in 2018 God is not male or female and undefinable. .“All human language about God is inadequate and to some degree metaphorical,” said Welby. .Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England member Rev. Ian Paul decried the proposal as a step too far. .“If the Liturgical Commission seeks to change this, then in an important way they will be moving the doctrine of the church away from being grounded in the Scriptures,” said Paul. .Paul stressed male and female imagery are not interchangeable. He said critics were misleading the teachings. .The reverend went on to say using male pronouns for God “should not be understood as implying that God is male — which is a heresy.” He added God is not sexed, unlike humanity. .Church of England Gender and Sexuality Group Vice Chair Helen King acknowledged “questions around gendered language and God have been around for decades, if not centuries.” King said the questions have the power to bring out strong reactions. .“Clearly God is not gendered, so why do we restrict our language for God in gendered ways?” she said.
