King confirms Church of England’s first female leader
Sarah Mullally has been confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England.
The worldwide Anglican Communion has no official head, but the archbishop has traditionally been seen as its spiritual leader.
Mullally, a 63-year-old cancer nurse who is a priest, officially took on the responsibilities of her new job when she presided over a legal ceremony confirming her appointment, which was announced almost four months ago.
The so-called Electoral Confirmation service marks a major milestone for the Church of England, which ordained its first female priests in 1994 and its first female bishop in 2015. The church’s roots date back to King Henry VIII of the English church. It dates back to the 16th century, when it broke away from the Roman Catholic Church during the reign of Henry VIII.
George Gross, an expert on theology and monarchy at King’s College London, highlighted the church’s continuing separation from the Catholic Church, which bans women from being ordained as priests, much less banning them from serving as the religion’s global spiritual leader.
“It’s a huge contrast,” Gross said.
“And that’s a big statement in terms of the position of women in society.”
But Mullally’s appointment could lead to deepening divisions in the Anglican Communion, which has 100 million members in 165 countries, on issues such as the role of women and the treatment of LGBTQ people.
He will also have to confront concerns that the Church of England is not doing enough to stamp out sexual abuse scandals that have dogged him for more than a decade.
Gafcon, a global organization of Conservative Anglicans, says Mullally’s appointment is divisive because the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes only men should be bishops.
Rwandan Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, president of the Gafcon council of senior bishops known as the Primates, also criticized Mullally’s support for blessing same-sex marriage.
“The newly appointed archbishop of Canterbury cannot provide leadership to the Anglican Communion because he has failed to safeguard the faith and has been complicit in introducing practices and beliefs that violate the ‘plain and canonical meaning’ of Scripture and the ‘historical and consensual’ interpretation of the Church,” Mbanda said in October.
Mullally will replace former Archbishop Justin Welby, who announced his resignation in November 2024 after failing to report to police allegations of physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at a church-affiliated summer camp.
He was nominated by a 17-member commission of clergy and laity, and his appointment was approved by King Henry III, the supreme governor of the church. Approved by Charles.
But there is still one more step in the long process of appointing a new archbishop.
On March 25 at Canterbury Cathedral, Mullally will be formally installed as bishop of the diocese of Canterbury in a ceremony marking the beginning of his new role. After this his public service begins.
