According to website thelocal.se, a notice advertising a Christmas worship service, the church described Jesus using the pronoun ‘hen’, which in Sweden is used to refer to non-binary people or in cases where a person’s gender is not known or not relevant.
The church’s dean, Susann Senter, released a statement after the notice attracted strong reactions, stating: “The religious Christ is greater [than the historical person] and needs to be described and talked about in each era, with new words and new songs . . .”
However, she also apologized to anyone who felt offended, stating it was unintentional.
The Bishop of Västerås, Mikael Mogren, has also defended the choice, saying he was “grateful” for the debate which the advert had started.
Another story had stated that the Church of Sweden had told its clergy to begin using more gender-neutral language including terms for “God”. However, Sofija Pedersen Videke, head of the Church’s service of worship committee, said that this was untrue, calling it “fake news”.
However, it was confirmed that their 31-year-old handbook was reviewed where some of the updated language includes three alternatives for the words to use at the start of worship services. This included one which is gender-neutral: “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”.
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