[lg policy] Oxford: College denies telling students to use gender-neutral pronouns for God

[Harold Schiffman]

 College denies telling students to use gender-neutral pronouns for God

The Sunday Times claimed theological college Wycliffe Hall instructs
avoidance of ‘he’ when referring to God
By Jack Hunter <http://www.cherwell.org/author/jackhunter/> -
January 27, 2017
181
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The theological college Wycliffe Hall has denied claims it asked students
to refer to God using gender neutral pronouns in an attempt to tackle
gender bias.

A report by *The Sunday Times* claimed the college’s Inclusive Language
Policy told students and staff to refer to God using “the one who” instead
of “He”.

It claimed that the policy intended to change phrases such as “mankind” to
“humankind” in its preachings.

However the college, a Permanent Private Hall training Church of England
priests, has strongly dismissed the claims, saying the college “does no
such thing”.

The college’s principal, the Revd Michael Lloyd, said the policy contains
“no suggestion that the traditional gender pronouns concerning God should
be altered in any way. Indeed the Hall’s policy reaffirms that we should
continue to speak of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as Christians have
always done”.

The *Sunday Times* had drawn comparisons with guidelines at two top US
divinity schools which reportedly recommend professors use “inclusive”
gender-neutral language when speaking about God.

Yet Lloyd said: “Inclusive language is encouraged at Wycliffe Hall in our
preaching and our writing when describing people – not ‘man’, ‘mankind’,
‘every man’, but ‘human’, ‘humanity’, ‘everyone’. Therefore careful thought
is required when using older liturgy, hymnody, or Bible translations, in
order to include the whole people of God. This is common sense and is
common practice throughout the churches.”

The article received angered responses, with comments saying: “Didn’t God
create Adam in his own image? Last time I checked, Adam was a masculine
name.”

But others expressed positivity for the initiative. Mark Woods,
writing in *Christian
Today*, wrote: “Wycliffe’s inclusive language policy, in fact, looks
eminently sensible. It notes that language changes and that while once it
was common to talk about mankind, man, every man, we don’t do that any
more.”

The college’s Inclusive Language Policy states: “The patriarchal masculine
has become a form of alienation for many women and indeed many men. It
reduces women to Other by normalizing the masculine.”

It encourages a use of inclusive language in the Hall “not because we have
to but rather as a sign of our love for each other in Christ”.

While acknowledging that older hymns and the Book of Common Prayer are “by
definition written in the language of patriarchy”, the policy says that
services and preachings will continue to use them in order to respect
“integrity”.

It states that the college expects teachers and visiting lecturers to
reflect a “gender balance” in their topics and language, for example by
using biblical passages which involve women.

The *Sunday Times* report, which has since been removed from the paper’s
website, is the latest in a series of articles concerning the use of
pronouns at Oxford which have faced claims of misreporting.

In December, following a *Cherwell* investigation, a claim published by *The
Sunday Times* that OUSU had instructed students to use the ‘ze’ pronoun was
revealed to be fake. The paper published an apology in January.


http://www.cherwell.org/2017/01/27/college-denies-telling-students-to-use-gender-neutral-pronouns-for-god/

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