The YOU-God made himself/herself/itself known in the 1960s in songs, hymns, extempore prayers, church liturgies and translations of the Bible. At first this Deity existed alongside the THOU-God, who had been around since English was first spoken many centuries earlier. Unless people had distinct and clear opinions, they did not know which God to address when they felt a need to pray. And in church they found themselves addressing both Gods - one in the Lord's Prayer ("hallowed be THY name") and another in the Prayers of Intercession ("we ask YOU"). But this situation did not last long for the YOU-God, supported by the Pope [Vatican] on the one hand and the Southern Baptist Convention, USA, on the other, came out on top, winning the battle of the 1960s!

To call God "You" was a smart move by church leaders and innovating theologians, liturgists and poets. It brought the language of prayer down to the same level as the language of the street and thereby it made God accessible and intelligible to the masses. For too long, too many had not made any sense of the language of the King James Version of the Bible and their access to God had been limited.

To use "You" of the Deity in religious talk and church talk was obviously new, it caught the attention of everyone and it drew a line between the old order (pre-1960s) and the new order (1960s onwards). Further, the "You" fitted in well with the sense of levelling, equality, novelty, and simplicity of the revolutionary times. The Zeitgeist [spirit of the age] proposed the change in Pronoun, welcomed it and propagated it with zeal. The YOU-God was one with the people who worked for peace and justice, who proclaimed human and civil rights, who emphasised the importance of self-affirmation, self-realization and self-fulfilment, and who looked for the kingdom of God on earth. Further, the YOU-God was well adapted for the "me" generation -"you, me and us we are our favourite people."

Since "You" can be either second person singular ("you are one") or second person plural ("you are three") in contemporary English this provided new possibilities for church talk and for doctrinal innovation. The old "THOU-God" could only be the ONE God of monotheism for even in his Tri-unity He is three in one and one in three. But the new YOU-God could be this and more, or less! The possibilities for doctrinal development were exciting.

The THOU-God, who had been around for an exceedingly long time, was associated with old people, with old ideas, ways and habits -everything old. This Deity was the cause of many of the problems and controversies of the past. It was time to cease to serve him for a new age had dawned. The revolution of the 1960s proclaimed that the NEW is superior, that innovation and novelty are the order of the day. So a new God was required and the YOU-God appeared (not, however, from "above" for that was where the THOU-God came from) but as a Universal Spirit & Mind, who had been there all the time and was now to be felt and sensed as near and available.

The THOU-God was particularly disliked for his stated purpose in making people aware of their sins to become penitent for them so that they could be forgiven and cleansed by the mercy of God revealed in the Cross of Jesus Christ. The revolution of the 1960s rejected this particular story of redemption by the blood of Christ and this story of personal sin (original sin, personal guilt deserving God's wrath). The innovators looked for a God who had a much kindlier attitude towards human failures, errors and weaknesses, who affirmed not judged, and they found such in the YOU-God, who supported psychotherapy and community help, not the confessional, for those with problems.

The THOU-God was associated with the old rugged type of individualism possessed by the stalwarts and heroes of American history. What was needed said the children of the 1960s was real community to meet and absorb contemporary individualism and atomisation and to bring people together in new forms of relationships. Such a new order needed a new Supporter, the YOU-God, the deity of community and relationships, and the deity who invented, required and blessed the passing of the peace and the sitting together in the half or full circle face to face with the presiding minister.

The THOU-God was linked to dull services of worship, where the music was seen as high brow and elitist, and where people came in their best clothes, and were polite one to another and used old forms. What was needed to lighten up the atmosphere and make it an ethos of Celebration and community was a much more free atmosphere with the popular music that most people were used to - on radio and records - and using instruments favoured by young people, especially the guitar. Only the YOU-God could make this possible, for this Deity was not tied to the compositions and manners of the past.

The THOU-God was perceived as a know-it-all God, one who could not be told anything but told his creatures all that they needed to know. But this is an affront to human dignity, said the free spirits of the 1960s, and they looked for a co-operative Deity, the YOU-God, who was prepared to listen and even be told what he should know and do. So in the new set prayers (collects) to replace the old ones, the minister actually told the YOU-God about deity - e.g., "God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hidden…." The YOU-God, knowing what he had to be like, then proceeded to act accordingly. This tendency is felt most acutely in the new rendering of the Te Deum Laudamus:

You are God and we praise you:
You are the Lord and we acclaim you!

The THOU-God was seen as the supporter of patriarchalism, sexism and androcentricism, the God who as a Male Deity who put women at the bottom of the pecking order. What was needed was a God who was not Male, who supported human rights, women's rights, and who delighted to be addressed not as "Thou/Thee, Lord, King, Majesty, Father" and the like; but, as "You, Creator, Parent, Mother" and the like. The YOU-God was all this and more and encouraged instant and wide-ranging changes in the language of religion and prayer to make sure that women were truly visible and really included.

The THOU-God was also associated with authority and an ordered hierarchy. Male pastors ran the church and made the decisions along with a few laymen in their service of the THOU-God. The only way to have female leaders, pastors and laywomen making decisions, and a new kind or ordered democratic society, was to welcome the YOU-God, the deity who does not practice discrimination and particularly encourages women as pastors, acolytes, readers and lay leaders.

To conclude.

What began in the 1960s has not ceased in the first decade of the new millennium. The YOU-God is still very much there, the God-in-relation-to-the-world that is best called Panentheism -- where the world/cosmos is seen as being within God and thus inextricably united to deity and able to make an impact upon deity in a cooperative manner.

There are those - perhaps many -- who worship the YOU-God and who deliberately or otherwise seek to confirm this deity to the main attributes, virtues and characteristics of the old THOU-Deity, whom they know is still around. What they are in fact doing at their best is worshipping the THOU-Deity under the name of the new YOU-Deity.

We recommend to these folks that they purchase a copy of The Book of Common Prayer (1662 or 1928 editions) and use it along with either the KJV or the RV or the ASV or the RSV version of the Bible (which uses "Thou").

The Revd Dr Peter Toon Trinity XII, August 21, 2002