PRIME Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s office has announced Dame Sarah Mullally as the new Archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, with the formal consent of King Charles, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England.
“The Church of England is of profound importance to this country. Its churches, cathedrals, schools, and charities are part of the fabric of our communities,” Starmer said, noting that “The Archbishop of Canterbury will play a key role in our national life. I wish her every success and look forward to working together.”
Meanwhile, a day for her enthronement ceremony is yet to be announced.
A historic departure from the past, The ICIR reports that this is the first time in nearly 500 years of history that the church nominated a woman to lead it.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is widely regarded as the spiritual head of the Anglican Church worldwide.
They also play a significant role in public life, holding a seat in the UK Parliament’s House of Lords.
In this capacity, they take part in debates, address national and global issues, including matters of religious freedom and offer responses to events of national significance.
Lord Evans of Weardale, who oversaw the process of selecting Justin Welby’s successor, described it as a “great privilege” to chair the Crown Nominations Commission.
“I would like to thank all those who took part in this process, particularly those who took time to share their views in the consultation and the members of the commission who worked so diligently over several months,” he said.
The Church had gone nearly a year without a leader following Justin Welby’s resignation over his handling of a prolific child abuse case.
“As I respond to the call of Christ to this new ministry, I do so in the same spirit of service to God and to others that has motivated me since I first came to faith as a teenager.
“At every stage of that journey, through my nursing career and Christian ministry, I have learned to listen deeply – to people and to God’s gentle prompting – to seek to bring people together to find hope and healing,” she said in her first speech address, where she acknowledged the ‘huge responsibility’ of her new role.
Mullally, who is the 106th cleric to be in the position, said, “We’re witnessing hatred that rises through fractures across our communities,” reacting to the wake of Thursday’s deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue, which was a day before her appointment.
She said the Church is responsible for standing with the Jewish community against antisemitism.
“Hatred and racism of any kind cannot be allowed to tear us apart,” she added.
She urged the Church to grow in confidence in the gospel, to proclaim the love found in Jesus Christ, and to let that love guide its actions.
“And I look forward to sharing this journey of faith with the millions of people serving God and their communities in parishes all over the country and across the global Anglican Communion.
“I know this is a huge responsibility, but I approach it with a sense of peace and trust in God to carry me as He always has,” she added.
Mullally’s background
At 63, the newly appointed Archbishop had already been breaking new ground in her field long before she was ordained as a priest.
Mullally, who served for over seven years as the Bishop of London, the Church’s third most senior position and the first woman to hold the role, made history in 1999 when she became England’s youngest-ever chief nursing officer.
The Church of England has only allowed women to be ordained as priests since the mid-1990s, yet some senior bishops remain openly opposed to women entering the priesthood, let alone leading the Church.
By law, Archbishops of Canterbury must retire at 70, which may be one reason Mullally was not widely seen as a frontrunner for the role.
Married with two children, she spent over 35 years in the NHS before she became a priest in 2006.
Though she was already volunteering in the Church at the time, it was only a few years later that she chose to pursue the priesthood and was soon entrusted with helping to reform how the institution handled cases of abuse.
In 2012, she was appointed canon treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral, and three years later, in 2015, she became Bishop of Crediton in the Diocese of Exeter.
During her tenure as Bishop, she was regarded as drawing on her background as an NHS administrator to help modernise the diocese.
Since becoming Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally has chaired a group tasked with guiding the Church of England’s deliberations on whether to allow blessings for same-sex marriages.
Mullally described the decision to finally allow priests to bless same-sex couples in 2023 as “a moment of hope for the Church”.
“I know that what we have proposed as a way forward does not go nearly far enough for many, but too far for others,” she said.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.