Since before the days of the early church, God has always been addressed in prayers as a male, including terms like Father, King, and Lord.
In the New Testament, Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God using a male term. In Luke 11:1-4, one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. "And He said to them, When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name.'" (NASV)
Now the Episcopal Church is debating about overhauling its Book of Common Prayer, which is used in Episcopal congregations worldwide.
The debate centers on making sure that prayers in the book are clear that God is not male, but doesn't have a gender, The Washington Post reports.
"As long as 'men' and 'God' are in the same category, our work toward equity will not just be incomplete. I honestly think it won't matter in some ways," the Rev. Wil Gafney, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Texas told the paper.
Gafney is on the committee recommending a change to the gendered language in the prayer book. Like many other Episcopal priests, he wants a prayer book that upholds that God is bigger than any gender.
Long separated from the Church of England, the leaders of the Episcopal Church will be considering two resolutions during its convention which begins Tuesday in Austin, Texas. READ MORE
