- For centuries Christians have prayed
to God the Father, but now a new Methodist worship book has moved with
the times - and decided to call God Mother.
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- The controversial prayer, which addresses
God "our Father and our Mother", makes the Methodists the first
mainstream Christian denomination in this country to depart from the traditional
language used to describe God in its liturgy.
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- The Methodists claim there is nothing
radical in calling God Mother, referring to descriptions by the 14th-century
English writer, Julian of Norwich, and Old Testament passages such as Isaiah
66, which says: "as one whom his mother comforteth, so I shall comfort
you".
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- At yesterday's launch of the Methodists'
first collection of liturgy for nearly 25 years, the Rev Neil Dixon stressed
that God was neither male nor female.
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- "God is not a person. God is spirit
and without gender. The fact that we've used male imagery so extensively
has in a sense reinforced the picture of God as a man, and the fact that
Jesus is male has done that as well but, if all human beings are created
in God's image, feminine as well as masculine attributes must reflect God's
nature," he said.
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- The Rev Norman Wallwork, another member
of the committee that has been working on the liturgy for the past eight
years, said: "Usage always informs the church eventually. The fact
that inclusive language and inclusive imagery is around in the secular
world is inevitably something the churches are going to capture. While
the world isn't going to write the agenda, the church isn't going to resist
rediscovering something that was already in its bloodstream."
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- The idea of introducing God as Mother
into the liturgy was first floated in 1992. The idea was dropped after
gaining little support. Last year the Methodist Conference, the governing
body of the country's one million Methodists, decided to reinstate the
phrase.
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- The Methodists have also introduced a
clause that allows a woman to be "presented for marriage" as
opposed to "given away". The man may also be "presented
for marriage" by a friend or relative.
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- "It was thought it was time to move
away from the bride being given away by her father as if she was a medieval
thing who belonged to her father's family," said Mr Wallwork. "Therefore
the bride and the groom are both 'presented' in a totally equal way."
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- The Methodists' marriage service has
been subject to further changes. The 1975 version said: "According
to the teaching of Christ, marriage is the life-long union in body, mind
and spirit, of one man and one woman."
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- In the 1999 version, the wording is:
"It is the will of God that, in marriage, husband and wife should
experience a life-long unity of heart, body and mind." The word "should"
may be interpreted as reflecting the lenient approach adopted by Methodists
towards marrying those whose former marriages have failed.
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- n The Church of England has taken a leaf
out of business text- books in an effort to attract more "customers".
Jayne Ozonne, a market researcher, will carry out focus groups in 20 dioceses
to establish what the church's "customers" want.
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