A lady will lead the Church of England for the primary time within the historical past of the centuries-old establishment. The Rev. Sarah Mullally was appointed because the 106th archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, the U.Okay. authorities introduced, which is able to quickly formally make her the non secular chief of over 85 million individuals who follow the Anglican religion globally.
Mullally, who’s a former nurse in Britain’s Nationwide Well being Service, will formally develop into the archbishop at a ceremony in London at St. Paul’s Cathedral in January. For the previous seven years, Mullally has served because the bishop of London, the place she was additionally the primary girl to carry that place. She had beforehand been probably the most senior U.Okay. authorities adviser on nursing as the federal government’s chief nursing officer for England, and was the youngest individual ever to be appointed to that publish.
King Charles III — who’s the supreme governor of the Church of England, a largely symbolic position that dates again to the church’s basis underneath King Henry VIII — congratulated Mullally on the appointment Friday.
Archbishop of Canterbury-designate Sarah Mullally poses inside Canterbury Cathedral, in Canterbury, England, Oct. 3, 2025.
Reuters/Toby Melville
In a press release Friday, Mullally mentioned that she “looks 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.”
“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 mentioned.
The Anglican church, which Mullally will quickly lead, has been mired in controversy over the previous 12 months. Her predecessor Justin Welby resigned final November after a assessment discovered that he and different senior church leaders had coated up the sexual and bodily abuse of over 100 boys and younger males in the UK and different nations by a British lawyer who helped lead Christian summer season camps in a number of nations.
Welby was not accused of committing any abuse himself, however an unbiased report discovered that management on the highest ranges, together with Welby, had identified in regards to the abuse.
