Over the weekend, the papers reported that the Archbishop of York was questioning the words of the Lord’s Prayer as “problematic.” The Guardian wrote
“The archbishop of York has suggested that opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be “problematic” because of their patriarchal association.”[1]
Some of me fellow evangelicals were quick to jump in on this, expressing concern that the Archbishop was seeking to change the prayer and with it doctrine and Scripture. They were perhaps not without excuse, there was been something of a tendency in recent times to try and adapt prayers, liturgy and Scripture in order to appease secular society.
However, it is probably worth noting what the Archbishop actually said.
For if this God to whom we pray is ‘Father’ – and, yes, I know the word ‘father’ is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us have laboured rather too much from an oppressively, patriarchal grip on life – then those of us who say this prayer together, whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, even if we determinedly face away from each other, only turning round in order to put a knife in the back of the person standing behind us, are sisters and brothers, family members, the household of God.”[2]
Now, there may be problems that we would still have with what he did say. The speech was primarily about church unity and focused on that unity being in saying the words of the prayer, whilst I would be wanting to look much more for evidence that we mean it and that we mean the same things by it.
However, in terms of what he did say about “Our Father”, he was not arguing that we should change the words. He was not suggesting that calling God “our father” is a negative thing. Rather, he was simply acknowledging that some people might struggle to say those words.
It is important for us to be aware of the different ways in which the words “our Father” have become problematic for many. I would probably say something similar to what Stephen Cotterill did if I were preaching on the topic. Sadly, for many, their experience of an earthly father is at best that he was distant or even absent and worse that he was cruel and abusive.
So, when we talk about God as Father, we want to recognise that this is hard and painful for some, not so that we never encourage them to come to him by that name. You see, the name “Father” is in fact one of the most precious and beautiful names for God. However, we do want to acknowledge the pain and recognise that it will be difficult. This will help us to see that when we call God “our Father”, we are not saying that he is a bit like our finite and fallen human experiences of fatherhood. Rather, we are saying that human fathers are meant to be a bit like what God is as Father, even as we recognise that they fail. We are saying that the solution to the problem of bad human fathers is not to get rid of the concept but to offer hope in the one true and good Father.
We need to be careful not to jump onto newspaper headlines, especially when they seem to fit with our expectations. The problem here was not with the words of the prayer, or even those of the archbishop but with those who have taken and distorted this beautiful name for Gof by their words and actions.
[1] Lord’s Prayer opening may be ‘problematic’, says archbishop | Anglicanism | The Guardian
[2] York General Synod 2023 – Presidential Address | The Archbishop of York
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