Calling God “our Father” is “problematic” for people who have suffered under “oppressive patriarchy”, the Archbishop of York has said. The Telegraph has the story.
The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell said the phrase is “problematic” for victims of abuse as well as people who have suffered under “oppressive patriarchy”.
The Archbishop waded into the controversial debate on God’s gender in his presidential welcome address to General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body, which is convening in York.
The Lord’s Prayer, the Christian prayer which derives from when Jesus’s disciples asked him how they should pray, begins: “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name”, and contains the male pronouns, ‘He’ and ‘Him’, in reference to God.
However, the Archbishop of York has suggested that the use of the term ‘Father’ is “problematic” for those who have suffered under abusive fathers, and those who have been abused by clergy, known as their fathers in God.
The Archbishop’s comments sparked a mixed reaction from a divided church.
Liberal, feminist clergy within the Church of England said just “because Jesus called God ‘daddy’, we think we have to call God ‘daddy’”, and agreed with his intervention on the controversial subject.
In contrast, conservative Christians criticised the Archbishop for taking his “cue from culture rather than scripture”.
In a speech centred on themes of cooperation and collaboration, the Archbishop said that, for Christians, the “God to whom we pray is ‘Father’”.
He added: ”And, yes, I know the word ‘Father’ is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us who have laboured rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life.”
His comments come after the previous meeting of the Synod in February, in which the notion of a gender-neutral God was proposed.
Proposals were made to the Liturgical Commission, which prepares and promotes forms of religious worship and service within the Church, to consider launching a project “on gendered language” referencing God.
Why is God the only one these days not allowed his preferred pronouns?
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