A church in Sweden, headed by a woman, is calling people to
Express reports that The Church of Sweden’s priests have been banned from referring to the divine being with masculine words like “he” or “the Lord.”
Instead, they have been encouraged to use “God” or other gender-neutral options “in the name of God and the Holy Trinity” during services.
Speaking with The Telegraph, Church of Sweden spokesperson Sofija Pedersen Videke said: “We talk about Jesus Christ, but in a few places we have changed it to say ‘God’ instead of ‘he’. A wide majority of people decided on the book.”
The head of the church, Archbishop Antje Jackelen, defended this decision saying: “Theologically, for instance, we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human.”
The Evangelical Lutheran church made this decision during an eight-day meeting on ways to modernise its 31-year-old guidelines for services.
Let's bring it home
We asked Nigerian Christians to weigh in on this gender-neutral issue.
Here is what they said.
“God is God. Why would anyone even think of giving this almighty being a gender?” — Bayo 23
“I think He is a man. Isn’t that we use He and Him when we refer to Him?” — Segun 30
“God is genderless” — Alex 27
“God is just a supreme being” — Chimamanda 35
“The Bible says ‘He created man in His own image’ so He is a man.” — Paul 20
“ God is a spirit” — Bola 21
“You can not limit God to a sex” — Adebisi 27
What do you think?