# Inclusive Language Hymnody **Summary.** A body of worship-music practice that removes exclusively masculine references to God and humanity from classic hymnody and that composes new hymns with expanded divine imagery — including feminine and non-gendered language. Grounded in feminist theology, liberation theology, and mainline Protestant hermeneutics. The United Church of Christ's *New Century Hymnal* (1995) is the leading denominational example. St. John's UCC Chambersburg uses the New Century Hymnal and pairs it with [[The Inclusive Bible]] (Priests for Equality). ## Why This Matters Language about God shapes the community's imagination about God. When every pronoun for God is masculine, and when every inclusive plural is "men" or "sons," the cumulative effect teaches that God is most naturally male and that women are derivative. Feminist theologians including Sallie McFague, Elizabeth Johnson, and Phyllis Trible argued that the biblical text itself contains feminine and non-gendered divine imagery (Ruach, Shekinah, mother hen, Wisdom/Sophia, midwife) that a patriarchal translation tradition routinely flattened. ## Three Approaches Anne Linstatter, writing for Christian Feminism Today, names three methods for moving toward inclusive worship language (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Inclusive Language Music and Hymns Christian Feminism Today|Inclusive Language Music and Hymns Christian Feminism Today]]): 1. **Small modifications to classic hymns.** "Sons of men and angels say Alleluia" becomes "Heaven and earth together say Alleluia." Wesley's "Christ the Lord is risen today" keeps its tune and most of its text. 2. **Systematic hymnal revision.** Denominational committees revise every text to broaden divine references and to scrutinize metaphors and pronouns for God, Christ, and the Spirit. The UCC New Century Hymnal is the leading example. 3. **New composition.** Composers write original texts that carry inclusive, feminine, or non-gendered divine imagery from the start. Miriam Therese Winter, Jann Aldredge-Clanton, Carolyn McDade, and Mary Louise Bringle lead in this work. ## Key Resources - **United Church of Christ.** *The New Century Hymnal* (Pilgrim Press, 1995). Editors "sought to broaden the traditional divine references so that they included the feminine" and "every text underwent careful scrutiny of its metaphors and pronouns that refer to God, Christ, and the Spirit" (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Inclusive Language Music and Hymns Christian Feminism Today|Inclusive Language Music and Hymns Christian Feminism Today]]). - **Presbyterian Church (USA).** *Glory to God* (Westminster John Knox, 2013). Chaired by Mary Louise Bringle. - **Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.** *Evangelical Lutheran Worship* (Augsburg Fortress, 2006). Incorporates expanded divine language. - **Individual composers.** - Miriam Therese Winter. *Joy Is Like the Rain* (1967); *WomanSong*; *Woman Prayer, Woman Song: Resources for Ritual* (Meyer-Stone Books, 1987). - Jann Aldredge-Clanton (with Larry E. Schultz). *Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians* (Eakin Press, 2006). *Earth Transformed with Music* (Eakin Press, 2015). *Inclusive Songs from the Heart of Gospel* (Eakin Press, 2022). - Carolyn McDade. *This Ancient Love* (Surtsey Publishing, 1996). - Mary Louise Bringle. *Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing* (GIA, 2002). *In Wind and Wonder* (GIA, 2007). - Mark Miller. *Imagine the People of God* (2013). "Child of God" (2013). "I Choose Love" (2015). - **Elizabeth A. Moore.** *God Is Still Speaking, We Are Still Singing: New Hymns with Familiar Tunes* (2016). - **Colleen Fulmer.** *Cry of Ramah* — including "Washerwoman God" with Martha Ann Kirk. ## Web and Network Resources - [Christian Feminism Today (eewc.com)](https://eewc.com) — EEWC-CFT; publisher of the Linstatter guide. - [WATER — Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual](https://waterwomensalliance.org). - [Re-Imagining Community](http://www.reimaginingcommunity.org). ## Open Problems 1. **Copyright.** "Copyrighted choral arrangements can make changing lyrics difficult, and it may take great effort to persuade some publishers to grant permission to change 'Father' to 'Mother' or 'he' to 'she' in certain anthems" (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Inclusive Language Music and Hymns Christian Feminism Today|Inclusive Language Music and Hymns Christian Feminism Today]]). Larry Schultz's work on permissions is cited as a model. 2. **Contemporary praise music.** Linstatter calls praise music "another unplowed field for feminist work." See [[Convergence Music Project]] for one response. 3. **Generational gap.** CFT's list skews to composers from the 1970s–2010s. Contemporary inclusive-praise composers are underdocumented in the standard references. 4. **Trinitarian expansion.** "Father, Son, Spirit" alternatives such as "Creator, Christ, Spirit" or "Source, Word, Breath" face resistance both from conservatives who call them heterodox and from feminists who note that these replacements still elide the feminine. ## St. John's UCC Practice St. John's uses the New Century Hymnal and [[The Inclusive Bible]]. Hymn selections the wiki has already logged include Brian Wren's "Christ Is Alive" (2026-04-19) — which exemplifies the inclusive-language tradition within a hymnal-approved text. See [[Worship Songs Evaluated]]. > [!contradiction] > **Traditional complementarian view:** masculine language for God is revealed, not constructed. Feminizing or neutering the language is a theological intrusion on the biblical text. > > **Inclusive-language view:** the biblical text already contains feminine and non-gendered divine imagery. The tradition of flattening that imagery into exclusively masculine language is itself the intrusion. Recovering a fuller biblical witness requires recovering the suppressed imagery. > > Both sides appeal to scripture. The hermeneutical question is how much weight to give revealed masculine imagery (Father, King, Lord, Son) relative to revealed feminine and non-gendered imagery (Wisdom/Sophia, Ruach, Shekinah, mother hen, midwife, nursing mother, rock, fortress). ## Related - [[The Inclusive Bible]] - [[Miriam Therese Winter]] - [[Jann Aldredge-Clanton]] - [[Brian Wren]] - [[Convergence Music Project]] - [[Progressive Christianity]] - [[Worship Songs Evaluated]] - [[St. John's UCC Chambersburg]]