More words for God

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This article was published 24/02/2018 (3085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A recent uproar around theological language in the Christian church demonstrates that how people speak about God can be extremely personal and deeply entrenched, a Winnipeg-based Lutheran bishop says.

“It’s hard to change the language in those things that are internalized and part of the rhythm of their faith,” says National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

“It’s like changes to O Canada.”

Unlike the recent modifications to the Canadian anthem, revisions to make the Church of Sweden’s liturgy more inclusive led to international headlines and cries of fake news by church officials.

News agencies reported that the Church of Sweden, which has about six million baptized members, was banning male pronouns for God, removing the name “Lord” in reference to the deity, and insisting on gender-neutral terms.

Not true, says the head of the church’s service of worship committee, which is working on a new liturgical handbook to be released in May.

Instead, the updates will use more inclusive language and options for various ways to speak about the deity, says Sofija Pedersen Videke in a statement released late last year.

“The old handbook is from 1986 and the new edition is much more in line with the Swedish Bible translation made in 2000,” Pedersen Videke told Swedish news agency the Local.

“God is beyond ‘she’ and ‘he’; God is so much more.”

She says what the new liturgy will do is provide more options referring to the deity, including using the words “in the name of the triune God” as an alternative to “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

That’s an option already available to Canadian Lutherans, Johnson says, adding her denomination is reviewing its inclusive-language guidelines.

“Language is living and as we have new ideas, we need to be more precise,” she says about the updates expected next month.

Johnson says Archbishop Antje Jackelén of Sweden recently sent a message to other Lutheran groups playing down the changes and explaining the misrepresentation in the media.

“I think the Church of Sweden is under more scrutiny because of their actions around human sexuality and they were misunderstood” about the liturgy changes, Johnson says.

The Swedish Lutheran church marries and ordains people from the LGBTTQ* community, which Johnson says resulted in criticism from more conservative groups within the wider Lutheran church.

Whatever the context, varying references to God can create deeper and broader understanding of the deity, Johnson says.

“When we use different language for God and for people, we think about our prayers and singing in a different way,” Johnson says in a telephone interview from her Winnipeg office.

“We think about what messages we are trying to communicate and what we are trying to understand. It refreshes and renews the relationship.”

And people relate differently to images, says a local United Church of Canada minister, underlining the importance of using a variety of names and metaphors for the deity.

“Our multiple images of God try to house all the ways of seeing God,” says Rev. Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd of Westworth United Church, referring to biblical terms for God such as father, mother, light, rock and bread.

She says the United Church has an inclusive-language policy, but individual congregations decide how to implement it.

MacKenzie Shepherd believes that the discussion around theological language needs to move beyond God and gender to include all types of diversity.

“If we’re all created in God’s image, that suggests God would encompass all of our diversity,” she says.

“God is so much bigger than we can even dream or imagine.”

brenda@suderman.com

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