Lots of us will have been singing versions of Psalm 23 today – it is the set psalm for the the day, paired with the gospel reading about the Good Shepherd.
After church this morning at the God Factor, I was in the hot seat and being quizzed by the participants about what I thought about gender and God.
I think I like this, very much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgbvHM03dMs&feature=share
[Thanks to Susan Sheppard Hedges for reminding me of it]
As gender is socially constructed, I don’t even think that it’s completely possible to accurate describe God in terms of gender; I don’t think that our culture (any culture on this planet) is necessarily the same as the culture that God comes from.
Oh, you’re welcome! I love to share.
The end of that version of the psalm reminds me that the version of the Gloria Patri that we sing most often in St Mary’s makes no reference to gender.
“Glory be to you, Source of All Being, Eternal Word and Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be for ever. Amen.”
I think I like that formulation of the Trinity more than the functionalism of Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.
Lovely! I never would have thought of Bobby McFerrin as an exponent of Anglican chant, but he does it rather beautifully. Maybe you should have ‘Don’t worry,be happy’ for the set psalm next week.
This was my first awakening on the internet this morning. What a beautiful reminder that, in Christ, God has assumed all of our common humanity – male, female, and all the rest. Blessed be God!
Enchanting chanting. Begs questions of our understanding of who or what “God” is and the even more difficult question of how we are to describe “God” in a way that makes sense. “Changing” God’s gender is one way of opening up that debate. For people who are struggling with faith (like me) – the problem is often not with old chestnut’s like “was Jesus God?” but rather is “God” [as traditionally understood in theistic terms] actually GOD.
What do you mean when you use the word?
Steven