Church of England proposes using gender-neutral terms for God – and it’s already happening in Adelaide

Debate has broken out around the world over a proposal to stop referring to God as He or Him. But it’s already happening here in Adelaide.

Changing the way we refer to God – from masculine terms like He and Him to gender-neutral pronouns – “makes perfect sense” and is already happening in Adelaide, some religious leaders say.

Debate was sparked this week by revelations that the Church of England is considering changing centuries of religious teaching to use gender-neutral language.

This could include referring to God by the pronouns “They/Them”, rather than “He/Him”, and changing The Lord’s Prayer to refer to “Our Father and Mother”.

The suggestion has sparked accusations of political correctness from some, while others say it is in line with the understanding that God is neither male nor female.

Adelaide’s Activate Church Pastor Rosalie Dow said she already tried to “avoid using masculine pronouns for God”.

“At Activate we often use gender neutral-language in prayers and songs,” she said.

“I think it makes perfect sense. Any argument that God needs to have masculine pronouns to refer to them stems from the patriarchy.”

Ms Dow said the issue had “become politicised” when really it was “acknowledging the theological reality that God doesn’t have a gender”.

“To try and put God into a box of gender just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.

Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide Geoffrey Smith was unavailable to comment.

Anglican archdeacon, and retired head of AnglicareSA, Peter Sandeman said God had been assigned a male gender “by convention”.

View of St Peters Cathedral taken from parklands near King William Road, Adelaide South Australia. picture iStock

“It’s about us assigning God the male gender, rather than God … saying I am male,” Canon Sandeman said.

“The idea that God doesn’t have a gender has been around for a long time. It’s not a recent invention of woke politics.”

Canon Sandeman said it had “become a sharp issue” amid discussions around inclusivity of LGBTQI+ people within the church, and the blessing of same-sex marriages.

Former Premier Lynn Arnold, who is an assistant priest at St Peter’s Cathedral in Adelaide, said he believed people would continue to make their own decisions about how to refer to God.

“I happen to know that some people have been using gender-neutral language in their prayers for a long time,” he said.

The Church of England, which is headed by King Charles III, confirmed that its Liturgical Commission has launched a special project to examine updating future teachings.

Any decision to change the language used to refer to God would need the approval of the Church’s legislative body, the General Synod, and there is no consensus so far.

Former Anglican archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies – who formed the breakaway Diocese of the Southern Cross in 2022 – said any attempt to stop referring to God as “He” or “Our Father” represented a “woke” and “outlandish” distortion of the true Christian faith and its scriptures.

The Rev. Ian Paul, a member of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, told the UK Times that if the change was made “then in an important way they will be moving the doctrine of the church away from being grounded in the Scriptures”.

Originally published as Church of England proposes using gender-neutral terms for God – and it’s already happening in Adelaide