Descending further into liberal madness, the Church of England just announced it has “no official definition” of a woman.
It’s not much of a surprise, since the church has continually made headlines for its gender activism in recent years. In 2018, it produced guidance on how clergy could use the rite of Affirmation of Baptismal Faith to celebrate a person’s new transgender identity and publicly use the individual’s new name. Other liturgical rituals were approved later for “recognizing and celebrating” transgender identity. In April, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams signed a letter written by an LGBT activist informing Prime Minister Boris Johnson that being transgender is “a sacred journey of becoming whole.” The church invites transgender people to pursue ordination.
The woman issue came up at the General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body, when lay member and Royal Navy representative Adam Kendry posed a question: “What is the Church of England’s definition of a woman?”
“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,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert Innes, Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, in a written response.
The definition has indeed been self-evident ever since “male and female he created them.” Innes, instead of stating this, continued to cede ground.
“The [Living in Love and Faith] 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 said.
Sex Matters campaign group executive director Maya Forstater told the Telegraph that the church’s readiness to give up the definition was “shocking.”
“When the Government redefined women through the Gender Recognition Act, the Church of England could have stuck with its long-established understanding, which makes sense whether your starting point is biology or the Bible,” Forstater said.
In the United States, denominations that take liberal theological stances in an attempt to appeal to a broader population have lost the most members. Meanwhile, theologically conservative churches see continued health, and even growth, despite the fact that they are more frequently blamed for the decline.
Adopting the world’s attitudes does not attract people on Sunday when they can hear the same thing anywhere else. Rather, it destroys the church’s grasp on reality. If you reject Genesis 1, why not the rest? If you deny biology, what else? The loss of the ability to define gender is a loss of grounding in truth.
Katelynn Richardson is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
