Catholic schoolgirls are banned from using the words ‘Lord’, ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ in prayers as they are being taught that God is gender-neutral.
A number of top Catholic schools in Brisbane including Top schools including All Hallows, Stuartholme, Loreto College and Stuartholme are teaching students to use inclusive language when referring to God.
Students at Stuartholme School in Brisbane’s inner-city, are being taught to use ‘Godself’ instead of ‘himself.’
‘’As we believe God is neither male or female, Stuartholme tries to use gender-neutral terms in prayers … so that our community deepens their understanding of who God is for them, how God reveals Godself through creation, our relationships with others and the person of Jesus,’’ a spokeswoman told The Sunday Mail.
Principal Ms. Wickham said that there are some occasions where gender language is appropriate.
Kim Wickham told the Mail: “Prayers written specifically for use within our college do not refer to God as male or female.”
“There are occasions where gendered language may be appropriate, including references to specific religious and biblical figures.”
The word ‘Lord’ is a male term and this is the reason that it has taken out from the prayers.
St. Rita’s College Clayfield has also adopted gender-neutral terms but still uses gendered language for traditional prayers.
‘’Brisbane’s top Catholic boys’ school St Joseph’s College has replaced the term ‘brothers’ with ‘sisters and brothers’ and ‘brotherhood’ with ‘international community.’
‘’This has been an area of growth for us in recent times,” a spokesman told Sunday Times.
‘’We have made changes to a number of prayers to be more gender-inclusive.’’
Reverend Justin Welby, said: “All human language about God is inadequate and to some degree metaphorical.”
“God is not a father in exactly the same way as a human being is a father. God is not male or female. God is not definable.”
“It is extraordinarily important as Christians that we remember that the definitive revelation of who God is was not in words, but in the word of God who we call Jesus Christ. We can’t pin God down.”