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While the new stance has been welcomed by liberal wings of the  Church, the comments have also provoked criticism – with gender-critical  campaigners saying that "whether your starting point is biology or the  Bible", the answer to the question of what is a woman remains the same.    Rev Angela Berners-Wilson, England's first woman priest, said that  she is "not totally happy" with the answer, but added that the issue is  "sensitive"... Adam Kendry,  a lay member of the Synod and a representative of the Royal Navy,  asked: "What is the Church of England's definition of a woman?" In response, Dr Robert Innes, the Bishop in Europe, said that "there is no official definition".


The Bishop in Europe, who was also replying in his role as chairman of the Faith and Order Commission, said in his written response: "There  is no official definition... Rev Angela Berners-Wilson, who became the first woman to be ordained as a priest in England in 1994, and  who has recently retired, told The Telegraph in response to the Bishop of Europe's answer: "I'm not totally  happy with it. I mean, I do think certain things like men can't have  babies just to say the complete obvious thing. "But I think we need to be very sensitive and maybe we need to reexamine our boundaries."


Maya Forstater, executive director of the Sex Matters campaign group,  described the Bishop's answer as "shocking", saying that "the concepts  of male and female did not need to have a formal official definition"  because "they are older than human life itself"... Jayne Ozanne, synod member and founder of the Ozanne  Foundation in 2017 – which works with religious organisations around the  world to tackle prejudice and discrimination of LGBTQI people –  described the question as "passive aggressive"... "It's time these anti-LGBT attacks stopped and that we learnt to  acknowledge that life is not quite as black and white as some appear to  think it should be." Dr Jane Hamlin, president of Beaumont Society charity, which supports  trans people, added: "I am puzzled why some people are so obsessed with  defining 'woman'.