D046 Expansive-Language Liturgical Resources
Language shapes reality. Use of expansive God-language enables Christians to claim freedom and dignity as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. The predominantly masculine language of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer limits our vision and creates a context in which male dominance and power is considered normative, implicitly providing theological support for exploitation and harassment of women. The BCP could make more use of biblical texts, drawing from neglected feminine imagery in scripture. There is an urgent pastoral and evangelistic need to address the disconnect between our theology and the exclusively male God-language in our liturgies. Work on inclusive and expansive language texts began in the triennium immediately following the adoption of the 1979 BCP. Though the controversy about expansive God-language largely subsided by the mid 1990s, General Convention has continued to authorize Enriching Our Worship materials for use under the direction of the ecclesiastical authority, limiting their use in some contexts. The 1997 General Convention approved the study and occasional use of “The Liturgical Psalter: Text for Study and Comment” (Liturgy Training Publications, 1994) and “Psalter for the Christian People” by Gail Ramshaw and Gordon Lathrop (Liturgical Press, 1993) (Resolution 1997-A074). Since then, additional inclusive-language psalters have been published, including the “St. Helena Psalter: A New Version of the Psalms in Expansive Language” (Church Publishing, 2000).
Explanation
Language shapes reality. Use of expansive God-language enables Christians to claim freedom and dignity as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. The predominantly masculine language of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer limits our vision and creates a context in which male dominance and power is considered normative, implicitly providing theological support for exploitation and harassment of women. The BCP could make more use of biblical texts, drawing from neglected feminine imagery in scripture. There is an urgent pastoral and evangelistic need to address the disconnect between our theology and the exclusively male God-language in our liturgies. Work on inclusive and expansive language texts began in the triennium immediately following the adoption of the 1979 BCP. Though the controversy about expansive God-language largely subsided by the mid 1990s, General Convention has continued to authorize Enriching Our Worship materials for use under the direction of the ecclesiastical authority, limiting their use in some contexts. The 1997 General Convention approved the study and occasional use of “The Liturgical Psalter: Text for Study and Comment” (Liturgy Training Publications, 1994) and “Psalter for the Christian People” by Gail Ramshaw and Gordon Lathrop (Liturgical Press, 1993) (Resolution 1997-A074). Since then, additional inclusive-language psalters have been published, including the “St. Helena Psalter: A New Version of the Psalms in Expansive Language” (Church Publishing, 2000).