The archbishop of York, the Church of England’s second-highest-ranking official, appears to have an issue with calling God “Father.”
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Stephen Cottrell told the General Synod, the Anglican church’s governing body, that the Lord’s Prayer has “oppressively patriarchal” connotations that may be problematic. (RELATED: New Report Documents Explosion Of Leftist Terror Attacks On US Churches)
The prayer has been recited by countless Christians all over the world for over 2,000 years.
Fox News explains:
Addressing church members, Cottrell acknowledged that the prayer, which Christ instructed his 12 apostles to pray in the New Testament, may bother those who have dealt with oppression stemming from their “earthly fathers.”
The Church leader made his remarks during the General Synod, the primary gathering of the leading members of the Church of England where they discuss issues affecting the Anglican Church worldwide, promulgate new forms of worship and come up with new laws by which to govern the church.
…
Cottrell’s “Our Father” comments sparked debate among other speakers at the Synod, with chair of the conservative Anglican Mainstream group, Canon Dr Chris Sugden providing a public rebuttal to the archbishop.
Sugden accused Cottrell of following mainstream culture rather than Christ’s literal words in the Bible.
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OK, we can drop the “Father”, since God doesn’t have to fool around with all the gender stuff. We can, easily, say: “God, our Creator, who art in heaven, etc.” I would suspect that most folks, while praying, have gender a long way from being foremost in their thoughts. Prayer doesn’t have to be a formula.
Mike, prayer May not have to be a formula, but Jesus always referred to God Our Father as His Father. Not parent, not parental unit, nor being, but Father.
It sounds like the Archbishop has allowed this new (and incorrect) psychology in regards to gender, to confuse himself. Or perhaps he’s trying to be politically correct. We must pray for him.
The archbishop can take it up with Jesus Christ. He’s the one who taught Christians to say “Our Father”. So if Jesus doesn’t have a problem with it then the archbishop shouldn’t either.
????? Really
This is so odd. Jesus does NOT instruct anyone to repeat the Lord’s Prayer! Jesus specifically said “In this manner pray ye…” We are not to just repeat this prayer. God does not want vain repetition! In this manner means to pray by the example. For instance, “Our Father who art in Heaven… means in our prayers we are to recognize God as our Father in Heaven and that He is in His realm. “Hallowed be Thy Name means that we must recognize that we must be respectful and acknowledge that His name is Holy. See? Now, just recognize that the Lord’s Prayer is an EXAMPLE of how we MUST pray!
Paul, I think you are overreaching on that. Jesus tells us: “Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art in heaven,…” Matthew 6:9
He’s demon possessed.
It never even dawned on me that using the word Father in the Lord’s Prayer would be some sort of misogynist slight. But we can thank the Marxist – Critical Theory folks for throwing stones at religion in general and the Lord’s Prayer in particular. And the Church of England prelates are particularly attuned to Critical Theory since they only exist because one king took exception to Papal Biblical decisions on whom ol’ Henry VIII could “start life” with.
As it has been since time began, fathers provide the genesis of life (figuratively and literally); and then provide protection and sustenance – some men better than others, and some women do it better than some men. Although in this day and age, if both have a gun, all are equal in the protection and sustenance department.
But it is never equal in the genesis department: fathers start/create life, and mothers develop, protect, and nurture that life. It is NOT misogynist to acknowledge those functions. One is neither less nor more than the other. So, in my mind, the use of Father in the Lord’s Prayer is to acknowledge the Creator part of His creations, and the “give us this day our daily bread” recognizes the nurturing or mother part of His creations.
P.S. I believe that the Bible is divinely inspired but still filtered through the human heart and mind. Most of us in the English-speaking world, for example, use the King James version, but that means that the languages spoken (and the culture that accompanies the translation of those languages from several thousand years ago) do not necessarily literally translate into the English of 412 years ago – or today. My example is Old Testament: “Thou shall not kill.” An Aramaic scholar Ph.D. and Purple Heart military chaplain, of all things, told me that in the original Aramaic, that Commandment reads: “Thou shall not murder.” The denotation of the original is somehow lost to the connotation of today. I wonder what other words have gained or lost meaning in our Sunday sermons.