Q: I'm a member of the United States Power Squadrons, and every year we hold a nonsectarian memorial service in a church for members who died the previous year. The doxology is sung after the offering. This response refers to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. While I am a Christian, I think this is disrespectful to Jews and other non-Christians attending the service. Wouldn't it be better to use a response that refers simply to "The Lord thy God"? — C., via godsquadquestion@aol.com
A: The first question I'd ask you is whether by "nonsectarian" you mean a nonreligious service or an interfaith service. Generally, people mean interfaith when they say nonsectarian, so I'll assume that's the type of service you mean. I believe there are two spiritually legitimate schools of thought on how to conduct a spiritually satisfying interfaith service:
1. No Christ, no Jesus, only God
Some believe that for the sake of maximum spiritual comfort all prayers in interfaith services should refer only to God or the Lord our God, and never to Jesus, Christ, or the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. (By the way, feminists don't like the word "Lord," which is clearly a masculine term for God.)