The church's General Synod has, however, clarified that it will not abolish or substantially revise any of the currently authorized liturgies.

Nonetheless, this news made headlines and brought up questions of how religions refer to God. Is God male? What pronouns should be used to refer to God?

As a Catholic feminist theologian who runs a women's center at a Catholic university, I understand the impact of the pronouns Christians use for God.

Historically, Christian tradition has recognized many pronouns for God, including "he/him," "she/her" and "they/them."

This is partly because God does not have a gender.

Despite the diverse images used for God in Scripture and Christian tradition, male language and images predominate in contemporary Christian worship.

Many images for God

When we speak about God, we do so knowing that what we say is incomplete. All images for God reveal something about God. No image of God is literal or reveals everything about God.

For example, while Christians can refer to God as a king, they must also remember that God is not literally a king.

Calling God a king expresses that God is powerful.

However, it is not expressing factual accuracy about God's gender or implying that God is human.

Referring to God with many titles, descriptions and images invites many of us to recognize the mystery of God.

God is like all of these things but also more than all of these things.

Thomas Aquinas, an influential 13th-century Catholic theologian, asserted that individuals can talk about God in ways that are true but always inadequate.

Aquinas explained that our language about God affirms something about God, yet God is always beyond what we can express.

We express truths about God in human terms and constructs, but since God is mystery, God is always beyond these categories.

Scripture is filled with multiple images of God.

In some of these images, God is depicted as a father or male. Jesus teaching his disciples to pray the "Our Father" prayer is perhaps the most well-known example of a male title for God.

In other parts of Scripture, God is female.

The prophet Isaiah compares God to a nursing mother in the Book of Isaiah.

A mother hen gathering her chicks is an analogy for God in the Gospel of Matthew.

The Book of Wisdom, a book in the Catholic Bible, depicts wisdom personified as a woman.

Wisdom 10:18-19 states: "She took them across the Red Sea and brought them through deep waters. Their enemies she overwhelmed." This account presents God as female, leading Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.

Depicting God as female in Scripture speaks to God's tenderness as well as strength and power.

For example, the prophet Hosea compares God with a bear robbed of her cubs, promising to "attack and rip open" those who break the covenant.

Elsewhere in Scripture, God has no gender.

God appears to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3, defying all gender categories.

The Book of 1 Kings presents a gentle image of a gender-neutral God.

God asked the prophet Elijah to go to a mountain.

While there, Elijah experienced a strong wind, an earthquake and fire, but God was not present in those.

Instead, God was present in a gentle whisper.

The creation stories of Genesis refer to God in the plural.

These examples emphasize that God has no gender and is beyond any human categories.

The social impact of male pronouns

Pronouns, like "He/Him" in the Christian tradition, can limit one's understanding of God. It can also make many individuals think that God is male.

It is not wrong to refer to God with male pronouns, but it can have negative social and theological consequences to refer to God with only male pronouns.

Feminist theologian Mary Daly famously stated, "If God is male, then the male is God."

In other words, referring to God only as the male gender has a significant social impact that can exalt one gender at the expense of others.

Referring to God only as a male can also limit one's theological imagination: Using many pronouns for God emphasises that God is mystery, beyond all human categories.

The Church of England is not only responding to modern questions about gender, but also continuing a long tradition within Christianity of referring to God as male, female and beyond gender constructs.

• Annie Selak is the Associate Director, Women's Center, Georgetown University, United States
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission

"Oppression and exodus now threaten Christianity's status as a worldwide religion."

The Catholic charity, which operates directly under the Holy See, said over the past two years the persecution of Christians has worsened in 20 of the 30 nations it assessed.

"In others where the problems were already extreme, there has been little or no change."

In the Middle East, the charity said, "a Christian exodus of almost biblical proportions now threatens the survival of the Church".

Aid to the Church in Need's media head, John Pontifex, said incidents of persecution are now apparently relentless and worsening: "Churches being burnt, Christians under pressure to convert, mob violence against Christian homes, abduction and rape of Christian girls, anti-Christian propaganda in the media and from government, discrimination in schools and the workplace…the list goes on."

Meanwhile, Vatican correspondent John Allen has said that Christians are currently the most vulnerable minority on earth and massive outside intervention will be needed to stem the rising tide of persecution against them.

In a Zenit interview, he put Christians in the same category as dissident Jews in Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s and black

Allen's new book is called The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution.

Citing statistics from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, he said an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed in a "situation of witness" each year for the past decade. That works out at 11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour.

Allen said he would like to see a grassroots mobilisation of the Christian consciousness — so there would be "something analogous to what happens in the Jewish world every time there's an anti-Semitic attack someplace".

Sources:

Aid to the Church in Need

Zenit

Image: Spero News

Founded in 1976 by a gay man, Frank Worthen, Exodus functioned as a support group for men and women who were struggling with their sexual orientation. Early on it embraced the idea that gays and lesbians could become straight through prayer and counseling.

But the belief in "reparative therapy was one of the things that led to the downfall of this organisation", said its president, Alan Chambers.

He noted that Exodus in recent years had redirected its focus to helping men and women work through their sexual identity.

"I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatised parents," Chambers said in the apology.

Chambers, who is married to his wife, Leslie, said his core beliefs about sexuality have not changed, and admitted he still wrestles with his own same-sex attraction.

"My beliefs about sex and sexuality and sexual expression are that God created, his original created intent was sexual expression between one man and one woman for one lifetime in the bonds of marriage, and that is the truth I live by," he said.

"But I do believe so many of us who hold to those scriptural beliefs ... have wielded them as a sword so often. We've been involved in a culture war that really, literally, has claimed untold lives, and we've got to be more careful."

The decision to close was announced at Exodus' annual conference, where Chambers said the board had decided to form a new ministry, to be called reducefear.org.

Chambers said there were many influences on his personal decision. Among them, he said, was the interfaith work overseas of the Christian relief group World Vision, which he praised for its co-operation with Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist groups to aid at-risk children.

Sources:

Washington Post

Religion News Service

Christian Post

Image: Christianity Today