The woke Church of England’s latest assault on the tenets of the Christian religion is apparently the Lord’s Prayer, which the Archbishop of York has criticised for being “oppressively patriarchal” over its reference to “Our Father”.
During a meeting of the General Synod, Church of England’s governing body, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell called into question the use of the Lord’s Prayer, branding the prayer offered to Christians by Jesus Christ during the Sermon on the Mount as “problematic”.
“I know the word ‘father’ is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us who have laboured rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life,” Archbishop Cottrell said according to GB News.
“We remain stubbornly unreconciled, appear complacent about division, and often also appear all too ready to divide again… We have got used to disunity,” he added, continuing: “We think it’s normal when in fact, it is a disgrace, an affront to Christ and all he came to give us.”
The comments from Cottrell, the second-highest ranking bishop in the Church, come amid a broader push to adopt progressive beliefs from the CoE leadership, which voted to allow priests to offer “prayers for God’s blessing” for same-sex marriages earlier this year for the first time in the history of the established church of England.
The issue of the gender of God has also become an increasingly contested debate within the Church of England, with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, previously declaring that God is “gender neutral“. Welby has often used his position as the principal leader of the Church to push for left-wing issues, notably surrounding illegal immigration and climate change.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the CoE was planning on establishing a project “on gendered language” in reference to God later, with some suggesting that phrases like “Our Father” could be replaced by supposedly neutral terms or feminine alternatives in order to combat alleged sexism within the faith.
Responding to Archbishop Cottrell’s comments on the Lord’s Prayer, the conservative Anglican Mainstream group chairman, Canon Dr Chris Sugden said: “Is the Archbishop of York saying Jesus was wrong, or that Jesus was not pastorally aware?
“It seems to be emblematic of the approach of some church leaders to take their cues from culture rather than scripture.”
Anglican Deacon and GB News presenter Calvin Robinson added: We call it the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ because it is the prayer the Lord gave us. He taught us to pray it. We call God ‘Our Father’ because that is how he instructed us to address him.
“Is the Archbishop saying Christ was wrong? That God made a mistake?”