Not in my name, Brother

Girls are perfectly capable of active participation in the Mass without special treatment

Why do some celebrants feel compelled to mess around with the liturgy and use inclusivity as an excuse? I'm feeling particularly exercised by the noxious "Pray sisters and brothers" which was slipped into a recent OF Mass celebrated by Someone Who Should Know Better. As a woman I find it unbearably condescending that a Bishop, a successor of the Apostles, would think that I might not feel included unless he deposes the elegant and correct "pray brethren" with the vandalism that is the twee "pray sisters and brothers".

Is my ability to pray somehow hampered by not being singled out, and told how special I am? (Oooooh, look, I've put you wimmin ahead of the 'brothers', how right on is that? Bet you feel special now."). The former Oxbridge English tutor in me rankles at the sub-1960's hippy-doodle-dandy sound of "sisters and brothers". Is there a woman, anywhere, who feels that her dignity is somehow compromised by being included in the brotherhood of man signalled by "pray brethren"? Do those celebrants who butcher the liturgy in the name of inclusivity truly believe that women are incapable of meaningful communication with Our Lord unless they're condescended to?

So, dear priests and bishops - Do the red, say the black. Please. But if you do choose to vandalise the sacred liturgy, please have the respect not to do it in my name.