Stop Calling God ‘He,’ Some Church of England Bishops Say

The Church of England should stop using male language in reference to God in order to attract non-Christians and better communicate the Bible message to a younger generation, several bishops told The Telegraph newspaper. 

“I don’t want young girls or young boys to hear us constantly refer to God as he,” said the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, the Church of England’s first female diocesan bishop. She is the bishop of Gloucester.

“For me particularly in a bigger context, in all things, whether it’s that you go to a website and you see pictures of all white people, or whether you go to a website and see the use of ‘he’ when we could use ‘God,’ all of those things are giving subconscious messages to people, so I am very hot about saying can we always look at what we are communicating,” Treweek said.

A YouGov poll of self-identified Christians in Britain found that 41 percent believed God does not have a gender, 36 percent said God is male and 19 percent didn’t know.

The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, bishop of Dorking, told the newspaper she tries to avoid male language in reference to God.

“When I lead prayers or preach, I try to get around the problem by using both male and female imagery, and also by avoiding the need to say ‘his’ or ‘him’ too often,” she said.

Revd Sally Hitchener, an Anglican chaplain at Brunel University, said there was a…