The Church of Sweden, which is in the process of updating its handbook for the first time since 1986, has chosen to adopt more gender-neutral terms for God.
However, they wanted to clarify that they are not 'banning' the use male pronouns to reference the deity.
"Everyone who wants to call God 'Lord' can remain calm," Sofija Pedersen Videke, head of the Church's service of worship committee, told The Local Sweden, "It is still there in many places in the new handbook. We have replaced 'he' with 'God' in one place, that's all."
Sofija also noted, "God is beyond 'she' and 'he', God is so much more. We want variation when it comes to how you express yourself, just like in the Bible."
The Swedish Church's handbook provides guidelines for how services should be conducted regarding language, hymns, and other components of worship.
The Church Assembly, a decision-making body of 251 people, voted on November 23 to update the handbook, including a move to have more inclusive language.
“Theologically... we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human," Archbishop Antje Jackelen said to TT news agency in Sweden. She has been an ordained priest for 37 years and is now head of the Church of Sweden, which 6.1 million of the 10 million people living in Sweden have been baptized into.
One of the newest changes is that there will be three different potential openings for a service, including a gender-neutral option: "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 one place where the male pronoun was removed was a sentence in the Gloria. 'Hen', the gender-neutral pronoun in Swedish, does not appear in the updated handbook.
The new changes will be put in place on May 20, 2018, on the Christian holiday of Pentecost.
