US EditionDame Sarah Mullally Becomes First Female Archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally will lead the Church of England amid safeguarding scandals and declining attendance, becoming its 106th Archbishop and first female in the role's 1,400-year history.
- On Oct. 3, Dame Sarah Mullally was named the next Archbishop of Canterbury, approved by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and assented to by King Charles III, with installation at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2026.
- Justin Welby, former Archbishop of Canterbury, resigned in November after criticism over his handling of a child-abuse cover-up involving John Smyth, leaving the Church of England leaderless until Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, took interim responsibilities amid pressure from independent reviews.
- The selection process began in February this year and nominated Dame Sarah Mullally, a former specialist cancer nurse and England’s youngest chief nursing officer, after over 11,000 public consultation responses.
- She will lead a global body of around 85 million people, and conservative Anglican churches in Africa and Asia have voiced opposition, with Laurent Mbanda saying her appointment could deepen divisions.
- She has urged the Church to confront misuse of power and condemned rising antisemitism after a synagogue attack in Manchester, Mullally said, `As I respond to the call of Christ to this new ministry...
452 Articles
452 Articles
Will Women Rising in the Church of England Influence the Vatican?
This week, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to join an ecumenical prayer service in the Sistine Chapel with King Charles, the “Supreme Governor” of the Church of England. (The two are heads of state: the United Kingdom and Vatican City.) The pope will jointly lead the service with Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York and currently the Church of England’s most prominent prelate. That honorific is usually given to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Still,…
eurotopics.net
der Standard ATThe former nurse Sarah Mullally, previously Anglican Bishop of London, will henceforth be named Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Conversation
RevolverFirst woman archbishop of Canterbury can’t preside over communion in hundreds of churches
As an academic specialising in gender and the church, the news that Bishop Sarah Mullally would be the next archbishop of Canterbury came as a pleasant shock to me. The announcement of a woman as leader of the Church of England and the “first among equals” in the worldwide Anglican communion came as a surprise to others too. One woman priest told me she was “stunned but pleased”. What is not surprising, though, is the immediate condemnation from…
In historic appointment, Sarah Mullally will be the first female archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally has been named the next archbishop of Canterbury, a historic decision by the Church of England that places, for the first time, a woman as leader of the church and as first among equals among bishops in the 85 million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion.
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