In light of the changing conceptions of gender in the woke world, a senior bishop of the Church of England said this week that there is no “official definition” of a woman.
During its assembly on July 8 to 12, it was stated that there is currently “no official definition” of a woman. The response was said Dr Robert Innes, the Church’s bishop in Europe and the head of the Faith and Order Commission.
“There is no official definition, which reflects the fact that until fairly recently definitions of this kind were thought to be self-evident, as reflected in the marriage liturgy,” Bishop Innes stated.
“The LLF project however has begun to explore the marriage complexities associated with gender identity and points to the need for additional care and thought to be given in understanding our commonalities and differences as people made in the image of God,” he added.
The Church of England is the most recent progressive voice to express doubt about what it means to be a woman.
During her confirmation hearing as a US justice, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson declined to provide a definition of a woman in March of last year. Judge Jackson was questioned by Senator Marsha Blackburn about the definition of the word “woman”.
The judge answered, “I’m not a biologist.”
Moreover, Anglican Church members had diverse opinions on Bishop Innes’ response.
Rev. Angela Berners-Wilson, England’s first female priest, admitted that she is not “totally happy” with the response but added that “we need to be very sensitive and maybe we need to reexamine our boundaries.”
Maya Forstater, executive director of the Sex Matters campaign, termed the bishop’s response “shocking.”
“When the government redefined women through the Gender Recognition Act, the Church of England could have stuck to its long-established understanding, which makes sense whether you start from biology or the Bible,” she said.
“It is shocking that they so readily gave up the definition of man or woman for the state to amend, as if this fundamental truth did not matter,” she said.