Dame Sarah Mullally has been named the next Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to hold the Church of England’s most senior clerical post in its nearly 500-year history.
The 63-year-old former NHS chief nurse was ordained a priest in 2006 and made history in 2018 as the first female Bishop of London — a position that ranks third in seniority within the Church. Her appointment comes after almost a year without a permanent archbishop following Justin Welby’s resignation over a major safeguarding scandal.
Welby stepped down in January after an inquiry found he failed to act on reports of abuse by John Smyth in 2013. Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell had been handling Welby’s duties in the interim.
Under the Church’s traditional process, Mullally’s name was submitted to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer before being approved by King Charles III. The King congratulated her on the “important” role she will play both in the UK and across the global Anglican Communion.
Sir Keir also welcomed the appointment, saying he looked forward to working with her.
Mullally will legally take office after the confirmation of election in January, followed by an enthronement service once homage is paid to the King.
Speaking from Canterbury Cathedral on Friday, she pledged to confront the Church’s safeguarding failures and to offer “something quieter but stronger” amid growing societal divisions. She also condemned Thursday’s deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue, declaring that hatred “cannot be allowed to tear us apart.”
While many Anglicans have celebrated her appointment, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, representing conservative factions, criticized the decision, asserting that “the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy.”
Women were first ordained as priests in the Church of England in 1994, with the first female bishops appointed two decades later in 2014.
Source: BBC