We believe that the imagery conveyed by language and language itself is important and that they articulate and influence our understandings of what is revealed to us about the nature and activity of God and the dignity of all God’s people as created in the image of God. — Inclusive Language Covenant, United Church of Christ […]
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Brian Schroeder’s article, ‘De-gendering God: How inclusive language revolutionizes worship’, can be found on his website: Worship Forward–resources for inclusive churches. A church musician, Brian explains: ‘A great way to easily find gender-free worship songs is to seek out ‘You’ language. A lot of songs that refer to God as ‘You’ are safer bets for […]
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How do we best introduce alternative inclusive translations, transliterations and interpretations of sacred texts? Do we shoe-horn people into inclusive language? Do we leap into inclusive language usage? Consider using these words from First Congregational United Church of Christ in Sarasota, Florida, with your congregation: ‘As you encounter and engage these words, I invite you […]
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Thomas Long writes: ‘Take the issue of inclusive language. Why should I be bothered with inclusive language in worship? Some people say that you should use inclusive language because otherwise, feelings will get hurt. That is true but not very persuasive. Others say that you must use inclusive language because kids in school are using […]
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‘Inclusive language is language that is free from words, phrases or tones that reflect prejudiced, stereotyped or discriminatory views of particular people or groups. It is also language that doesn’t deliberately or inadvertently exclude people from being seen as part of a group. Inclusive language is sometimes called non-discriminatory language.’ From ‘Guidelines for Inclusive Language‘ […]
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Thirty years after Allen wrote for Christian Century, with the majority of our churches continuing to use male-dominated language in worship, a fresh read of Allen’s article can raise the persistent and critical ‘cry in the wilderness’ as she provides important concerns and suggestions for worship leaders committed to inclusive language in worship. Allen’s article opens […]
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Out of the mouths of babes… Five-year-old Deborah has considered the gender of God. She realises God is bigger than ‘she’ or ‘he’. So Deborah offers a new pronoun for God: heesh And heesh is very pleased!
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God is not a she, God is not a he, God is not an it or a maybe. God is a moving, loving, doing, knowing, growing mystery. From The Song of Three Children, libretto copyright © Brian Wren, 1986, copied from the article “Taking the Next Step in Inclusive Language” by Pamela Payne Allen which […]
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