23. Church of Sweden to stop referring to God as ‘he’ or ‘Lord’. Fake or not?
Many news outlets from around the world reported in 2017 that the Church of Sweden banned the pastors from calling God by male pronouns and imposing the gender neutral pronouns. The Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to use gender-neutral language when referring to the supreme deity, refraining from using terms such as “Lord” and “he” in favour of the less specific “God.”
HOW CAN WE VERIFY THIS?
“It’s not true,” repeated Sofija Pedersen Videke, head of the Church’s service of worship committee. The Church Assembly, a 251-member decision-making body, voted in 2017 with a large majority to update the handbook, which includes the Church’s aim to use language that is “more inclusive”. The move is one of many made by the national Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is in the process of updating a 31-year-old handbook, which outlines how services should be conducted in terms of language, hymns and other aspects. Some of the updated language includes three alternatives for the words to use at the start of worship services, including one which is gender-neutral: “In the name of the Father and Son, and the Holy Spirit,” “In the name of God, the Father and Son, and the Holy Spirit”, and “In the name of the triune God”.
The Church Assembly also agreed to use the female grammatical gender for the Holy Spirit, as it the case in Hebrew as well as in the 2000 Swedish Bible translation (‘den heliga anden’ as opposed to ‘den helige ande’). “Everyone who wants to call God ‘Lord’ can remain calm. It is still there in many places in the new handbook. We have replaced ‘he’ with ‘God’ in one place, that’s all,” Pedersen Videke told The Local.
She said she had been fielding calls from journalists all day, and the Swedish Church also replied to several comments on its social media accounts, emphasizing that the change is not all-encompassing. When The Local repeats the headline “Church of Sweden to stop referring to God as ‘he’ or ‘Lord’”, which appeared in a major mainstream international newspaper, to Pedersen Videke, she sighs: “It’s not true, it’s fake news. I am aghast and wonder where it’s coming from?”
The pronoun ‘he’ has been removed in one place, one sentence in the Gloria, where the Assembly voted on Thursday to replace it in: “Ära åt Gud i höjden och frid på jorden bland människor som han älskar” (“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among humans whom he loves”). The change was adopted on the initiative of Kenneth Nordgren, who represents the Free Liberals group in the Church Assembly. He argued: “This is in order to take it one step further with regard to inclusive language and to indicate direct liturgical talk about God, which is preferable to an indirect pronoun. Stylistically, we are also of the opinion that this works well in terms of liturgy.” Sweden’s gender-neutral pronoun ‘hen’ does not appear in the new Church handbook at all.
WHAT ARE OTHER SOURCES SAYING?
The change was met with criticism, however, reports The Guardian, even though it is not a ban. Christer Pahlmblad, an associate theology professor at Sweden’s Lund University, told the Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper in Denmark that the move was “undermining the doctrine of the Trinity and the community with the other Christian churches”. “It really isn’t smart if the Church of Sweden becomes known as a church that does not respect the common theology heritage,” he said. Portal Intomore, analyses further this story:
FAKE OR NOT?
To quote Pedersen Videke, “It’s not true, it’s fake news. I am aghast and wonder where it’s coming from?” This also feeds into the anti-woke sentiment and right-wing populism spreading around Europe.
