Church of Sweden to stop clergy calling God 'he' or 'the Lord' in bid to crack down on gendered language By Jim on Sat, 11/25/17 Body The Church of Sweden is encouraging its clergy to use the gender-neutral term “God” instead of referring to the deity as “he” or “the Lord”. Priests can now open their services by referring to the gender-neutral phrase “in the name of God and the Holy Trinity”.