Editorial

We should not hesitate to call God our Father

“We must walk together, we must work together, and we must pray together.” (Pope Francis)

At the General Synod of the Episcopal Church of England, which was held in York, England, on July 7-11, the Anglican Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, stirred up a hornets’ nest of controversy by observing that addressing God as “Father” may upset people whose genetic fathers were abusive, and for people who have “labored” under the burden of “oppressive patriarchy.”

As is frequently the case with public controversies, the archbishop’s speech was not focused on the word “Father,” but on the word that precedes it in The Lord’s Prayer: “Our.”

Anyone who reads the full text of Archbishop Cottrell’s speech (cutt.ly/CottrellText)will see that it is a perfectly balanced and insightful reflection on the importance of Christian unity in light of the fact that all of us, regardless of our diversity, are sisters and brothers in the one family of God.

The fatherhood of God is not about gender as we understand—or, too often, misunderstand—this concept. It is about our relationship to God as adopted children, as well as our relationships with those who are not strangers or enemies but our siblings.

In his speech, Archbishop Cottrell quotes Pope Francis as follows:

In today’s world, the sense of belonging to a single human family is fading, and the dream of working together for justice and peace seems an outdated utopia. What reigns instead is a cool, comfortable and globalized indifference, born of deep disillusionment concealed behind a deceptive illusion: thinking that we are all powerful, while failing to realize that we are all in the same boat. … How wonderful would it be, even as we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters who orbit around us.

These insights of Pope Francis frame the thoughts shared by the Archbishop of York in his address to his fellow Anglicans gathered in the synod. Calling attention to the first word in the English translation of The Lord’s Prayer, Archbishop Cottrell says, “That little word ‘our’ is a revolution. Not ‘my God.’ Not ‘your God.’ Our God. The God who Jesus shows us is the ‘loving Father God’; the God of giving and self-giving reciprocity. The God who is Trinity.”

Yes, the archbishop does acknowledge that some people have difficulties with calling God “Father.” But in this speech, he does not question the importance or validity of addressing God in this way.

For one thing, he is keenly aware that this form of address was given to us by Jesus himself who invites us to share in his relationship with God.

In almost every prayer that Jesus utters in the New Testament, he addresses God as Father. This represents a radical departure from Jewish custom and tradition, and it must have made Jesus’ disciples uncomfortable to speak to God in this way. We know that it infuriated and scandalized the religious leaders of the day.

Archbishop Cottrell clearly wants to be sensitive to those today who, for different reasons, find the word Father difficult. But, once again, his focus is on the little, but immensely significant, word “our”:

For, again, if we say this prayer, we are, in that one little opening word, declaring the unity that we ought then to bend every sinew and expend all efforts of creativity and ingenuity to make visible. But if we begin with the word “our” and let it change the way we see ourselves and see each other, then we will also see that our belonging to each other is not only non-negotiable, it is what we must prize and hold onto in all our discussions, all our decisions, and in all the issues we face. Moreover, we must always go the extra mile of finding those ways of widening the tent of our inclusion, but without letting anyone be lost. Disagreeing well really does matter.

We should not hesitate to call God “Father,” provided that we acknowledge that God’s fatherhood is infinitely greater than our weak and sinful expressions of human paternity. When we call God our Father, we give witness to the truth of our sibling relationship to all humankind precisely because we are all children of the One God.

“As we say the Lord’s Prayer,” Archbishop Cottrell says, “let that word ‘our’ shape us, leading us to a closer collaboration within our churches and deaneries, but also with the other denominations who share our baptism, and with whom we could share ministry and mission and with whom we must pray.”

—Daniel Conway