Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Nota de la editora: este blog post esta disponible en español.

A very important aspect of fully embracing our great diversity, in terms of race and culture is to also highlight the genders. In languages that have words to differentiate between genders built into their grammar, we can easily do this in our oral and written communication. When there is a sense of inclusiveness it is so very pleasing to hear or read the Spanish language.

When we speak there is an accompaniment of non-verbal language which includes the male and female presence, but when we are communicating in the written form it is appreciated when the genders are specifically written into our texts and taken into account in both the singular and in the plural. The inclusion of the female gender goes beyond adding the female forms “a” or “as” to the male “o” or “os”. It is equally important to make sure that the information we are exchanging encompasses examples of persons of both genders, not just referring to men as we so often do.

It is not at all difficult to be inclusive in this way. To illustrate my point I offer an example from our Book of Common Prayer. I invite readers of both genders to read and listen to the same message in the original and then to the one I suggest, which mentions women as well as men. Enjoy reading (and also hearing) the sense of inclusiveness when we mention both genders:

O Lord Jesus Christ, you became poor for our sake, that we might be made rich through your poverty: Guide and sanctify, we pray, those whom
you call to follow you under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, that by their prayer and service they may enrich your Church, and by
their life and worship may glorify your Name; for you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ, you became poor for our sake, that we might be made rich through your poverty: Guide and sanctify, we pray, the men
and women whom you call to follow you under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, that by their prayer and service they may enrich
your Church, and by their life and worship may glorify your Name; for you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

If you enjoyed the inclusion of both men and women in the same text, I invite you to 
attempt to internalize this approach and to make it your usual way of expression when you speak and write. You will derive great satisfaction seeing the joy in the eyes of the men and women who feel more included when they hear your messages as well as in the smiles, that you may not see, but appear on the faces of your readers.

I think that once you try this subtle shift it will become second nature and may even become part of your own personal style. I believe that this is also a way of loving Christ in the way that He loves us and in the way that He invites us to love our brothers and sisters.