In a recent Christmas advertisement produced by the Church of Sweden, Jesus no longer possesses the antiquated gender pronoun "he". Rather, "hen", a gender neutral innovation introduced to the Swedish language the new, more inclusive pronoun has been used to refer to the Son of God.
"It's not necessary… But the important thing is not that Jesus was a man, but rather a true human," said Susanne Senter, dean for the Church of Sweden's Västerås congregation in an interview with Swedish Radio.
While Senter acknowledged that it wasn't "necessary" to change the pronoun of Jesus, she did claim that the new, gender-neutral Jesus is more inclusive, and might not turn away some people from the church.
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"People can live with their beliefs and their expressions… But it might be that some of the traditional expressions block some people [from going to church]," the dean went on to say.
The Church of Sweden has recently made headlines for its aversion to the use of gendered vocabulary in reference to God.
