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<h1>More words for God</h1>
<h2>Making language of liturgy more inclusive a debate worth having</h2>
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By: Brenda Suderman<br>
Posted: <strong><span>02/24/2018 3:00 AM</span></strong> <span class="gmail-noprint">
| <a href="https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/faith/more-words-for-god-475034343.html#have-your-say" class="gmail-comment-count">Comments: 1</a> </span>
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<a href="https://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/NEP3815837.jpg"><img src="https://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/NEP3815837.jpg" alt="Max Rossi / The Associated Press Files</p><p>Lutheran Archbishop Antje Jackelén at an ecumenical mass in Lund’s Lutheran cathedral in Sweden in 2016. The Church of Sweden is revising its liturgical handbook.</p></p>"></a>
<figcaption><p>Max Rossi / The Associated Press Files</p><p>Lutheran
Archbishop Antje Jackelén at an ecumenical mass in Lund’s Lutheran
cathedral in Sweden in 2016. The Church of Sweden is revising its
liturgical handbook.</p><p></p></figcaption>
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<p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><div class="gmail-mobile-inarticle-container"><div id="gmail-mobile-inarticle-banner" class="gmail-ad-mobile-inarticle-banner"></div></div><p>"It’s like changes to <em>O Canada</em>."</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"God is beyond ‘she’ and ‘he’; God is so much more."</p><p>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."</p><p>That’s an option
already available to Canadian Lutherans, Johnson says, adding her
denomination is reviewing its inclusive-language guidelines.</p><p>"Language is living and as we have new ideas, we need to be more precise," she says about the updates expected next month.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Whatever the context, varying references to God can create deeper and broader understanding of the deity, Johnson says.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"We think about what messages
we are trying to communicate and what we are trying to understand. It
refreshes and renews the relationship."</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>She says the United Church has an inclusive-language policy, but individual congregations decide how to implement it.</p><p>MacKenzie
Shepherd believes that the discussion around theological language needs
to move beyond God and gender to include all types of diversity.</p><p>"If we’re all created in God’s image, that suggests God would encompass all of our diversity," she says.</p><p>"God is so much bigger than we can even dream or imagine."</p></div></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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