‘Church of Sweden’ Aiming to Use ‘More Inclusive’ Language When Referring to God
(Western Journal) — The Church of Sweden acted Thursday to urge its clergy to stop using solely masculine references to God by adopting a new handbook governing all forms of worship. The handbook makes significant changes to how priests are encouraged to talk about God.
“We talk about Jesus Christ, but in a few places we have changed it to say ‘God’ instead of ‘he,’” Church of Sweden spokesperson Sofija Pedersen Videke told The U.K. Telegraph. “We have some prayer options that are more gender-neutral than others.”
“A wide majority of people decided on the book,” she claimed. The handbook’s stated goal, according to the Swedish TT News Agency, is for language referring to God to be “more inclusive.”
Videke later clarified to The Local Sweden that the book does not rule out the use of the masculine pronoun to refer to God, but gives churches and priests more options if they do not wish to do so.
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