Former nurse Sarah Mullally was on Wednesday officially confirmed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England and its 85-million-strong global Anglican Communion.
At a historic service held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Mullally, 63, legally assumed office ahead of her formal installation, known as enthronement, scheduled for March 25 at Canterbury Cathedral. The Church of England said she will begin her full programme of public engagements after that date.
Proceedings were briefly interrupted by a heckler who was escorted out of the cathedral. Church officials did not immediately clarify what was said.
Mullally’s appointment has sparked criticism from some conservative members of the Anglican Communion, particularly in Africa. The Church of Uganda last October described her selection as “sad news,” reflecting long-standing tensions between conservative and liberal Anglican churches, especially over the ordination of women and LGBTQ-related issues.
Speaking ahead of the service, Mullally said she hoped to lead with “calmness, consistency and compassion” during what she described as “times of division and uncertainty for our fractured world.”
“It is an extraordinary and humbling privilege to have been called to be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury,” she said in a statement.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, second in rank within the Anglican hierarchy, said he hoped that as Mullally took up the role, the church would learn from its “past failings” and become “simpler, humbler and bolder.”
Mullally succeeds Justin Welby, who announced his resignation last January following the fallout from an abuse scandal. An independent report found that the Church of England had covered up a 1970s serial abuse case and that Welby failed to report allegations to authorities when they came to his attention in 2013.
The report said John Smyth, a lawyer who organised evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, abused as many as 130 boys and young men.
The Church of England became Britain’s state church after King Henry VIII’s split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s. The British monarch serves as its supreme governor, while the Archbishop of Canterbury is regarded as the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide.
Married with two children, Mullally spent more than three decades in Britain’s National Health Service, rising to become chief nursing officer for England in 1999. Ordained as a priest in 2002, she became the first female Bishop of London in 2018, four years after the Church of England approved the appointment of women as bishops.
She has described herself as a feminist and previously called the 2023 decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples “a moment of hope for the church,” while acknowledging continuing disagreements. In interviews on Wednesday, she said she was committed to speaking out against misogyny.
The Church of England estimates there were about one million regular Anglican worshippers in Britain in 2024, with around 85 million followers across more than 165 countries worldwide.
