www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Presbyterians take Trinitarian Theology to a WHOLE new "level"!

'I believe in Larry, Moe and Curly Joe'
Jun 30, 2006
by Kathleen Parker

Verily, I say unto you - Whatever.

No, wait, how about this: "Yo, Christ Buddy!"

Wait, wait: I believe in God the (blank) Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ his only offspring, our sorta-Lord, who was conceived by artificial insemination, suffered under Pontius Pilate, etc., etc.

Sorry to offend, I'm just practicing my new Presbyterian catechism. The preceding was the modernized, gender-neutral version of the Apostles' Creed as it may read some day soon.

Before you call me blasphemous, take it up with the Presbyterian Church (USA), home to the "sometimes whatevers," previously known as the "eternal verities."

Ever attentive to the world's evolving feelings - I guess - delegates to the church's national assembly recently voted to "receive" a policy paper on gender that would allow a little flexibility on the Holy Trinity.

Make that the sorta-holy (lowercase) trinity.

The father-son-holy ghost triad, long a chafing point for feminists who prefer the good old days when goddesses ruled the Earth, has about played itself out, it seems. Under the improved sensibility, parishioners are now permitted a little flexibility with their liturgies, especially that pro-guy Trinity thingy.

Among acceptable alternatives to the dad-boy-ghost scenario are: "Mother, Child and Womb," or "Rock, Redeemer, Friend." No rock, paper, scissors. Yet.

I confess to some disappointment, as I was hoping for something a little closer to the bone, such as, say: Two moms, sperm baby, artificial womb. Those Presbyterians. Always so white bread and grape juice.

Before the church unleashes its version of hellfire and brimstone and cancels my magazine privileges, I confess to being a lapsed Presbie, a compromise between my Catholic father and Baptist mother. I joined the church at age 12 following weeks of catechism classes and tests on the Apostles' Creed, doxology, and so on.

When I wasn't in school, it seemed, I was in church: Sunday school, choir practice, piano lessons from the organist, Summer Bible School. The church was central to our lives, a home away from home, our hangout and recreational center. What can I say? We were nerds. More than a physical place, the church was - as the Catholic Church almost exceptionally remains - a reliably stable spiritual oasis that stood for something in a time that stands for nothing. The rules and players didn't change on a whim, which is something children love even if adults find it boring.

Or, as today, politically incorrect.

The USA Presbyterians have acknowledged with these new allowances that "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" are patriarchal leftovers that have been used "to support the idea that God is male and that men are superior to women," according to the panel that studied the issue.

None of these optional trilogies is etched in stone, but are offered as "an educational resource to enhance the spiritual life of our membership," according to Nancy Olthoff, an Iowa laywoman and legislative committee chair.

One can argue - as an editor/friend (and another Catholic-Baptist hybrid) did during a recent conversation - that religion can and should be flexible to accommodate changing times and people's needs. Different folks find different routes to salvation, after all, and adopt a variety of faiths to keep the wolf at bay.

As John Lennon put it: "Whatever gets you through the night." To which God responded: "Whatever is wrong with you people?"

What's wrong is that we live in anti-father, mad-at-daddy times. This is simply the Da Vinci Codification of the church, the dogma of which is "Women good, men bad." Matriarchy good, patriarchy bad. Womb good, oh never mind.

Irony seems to have gone missing as we worship our wombs and swoon over lost goddesses, however. The whole notion, advanced and commodified by Dan Brown (author of "The Da Vinci Code"), that the church sold out women ignores a couple of facts.

First, the Virgin Mary was hardly a bit player in the Catholic Church, which elevated her as the sacred feminine. Second, the Gospels were radically feminist in recognizing women as something more than property.

Gelding the trilogy may make a few new-age Presbies feel virtuous in the moment, but the likely effect longer term will be to animate the fundamentalists who often give religion a bad name. People who feel the Earth moving beneath their feet - their institutions and faith under siege - tend to seek out something more stable and less fluid.

And, ultimately, less tolerant.

I half wondered why the Presbyterians in question didn't add "Moe, Larry, and Curly" to their list. That would make for a fun litany.

"Mother, Child, Womb" is actually rather lovely when you think about it.

So how is the Holy Spirit "the Womb"? Wasn't the Theotokos' womb that carried the Christ?

imagine that it came from, say, Catherine of Siena or Hildegarde of Bingen.

Originally posted by Theist Gal:
And many of the great mystics of the Church had no problem seeing, and describing, God as Mother as well as Father.

My opinion is that God is so big that no box or definition we can come up with will ever quite fit.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be reached only by their names; do not look further to their Persons, just meditate upon their names.

If you investigate the person of God you will perish, but if you believe in the name, you will live.

Let the name of the Father be a boundary to you, do not cross it and investigate His nature;

Let the name of the Son be a wall to you, do not cross it and investigate His birth from the Father;

Let the name of the Spirit be a fence for you, do not enter for the purpose of prying into Him.

Memra on Faith 4:129-40
taken from Sebatian Brock's The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syrian - well worth getting!

The early Syrian tradition - which, if it must be known, is my favorite theological stream in the tradition of the Church - maintained "divine maternity" as a principle of Trinitarian theology.

Aphraat, for instance, says that we should adore God as Father and the Holy Spirit as Mother, and even in some cases evidently uses poetically the personal pronoun "She"! And "ruah" or "spirit" is a feminine word in the Hebrew...

For me, understanding the Holy Spirit as "Holy Mother" literally transformed my prayer life - as well as my thinking about Mariology. If Christ is the "icon" of the Father by nature could it not be said that Mary is the icon of the Holy Spirit by grace?

Does it not also help us to more fully appreciate the ecclesia as a "Temple of the Holy Spirit" - both Bridal and Maternal?

If man and woman are both in the image and likeness of God, does it not follow that all of the virtues and qualities found in both originate in God - including Fatherhood and Maternity?

Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be reached only by their names; do not look further to their Persons, just meditate upon their names.

If you investigate the person of God you will perish, but if you believe in the name, you will live.

Let the name of the Father be a boundary to you, do not cross it and investigate His nature;

Let the name of the Son be a wall to you, do not cross it and investigate His birth from the Father;

Let the name of the Spirit be a fence for you, do not enter for the purpose of prying into Him.