The Church of England will look into the use of gender neutral terms to refer to God in prayers, but the centuries-old institution said on Wednesday there were no plans to abolish current services. The issue reflects growing global awareness about the assumed usage of pronouns causing offence or upset to those who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. “Christians have recognised since ancient times that God is neither male nor female,” a spokesperson for the Church said. “Yet the variety of ways of addressing and describing God found in scripture has not always been reflected in our worship.”

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