Ex-Nurse Sarah Mullally Installed as First Female Archbishop of Canterbury

A former nurse and midwife has made history after being formally installed as Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the global Anglican Communion.

Sarah Mullally, 63, was enthroned during a traditional ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday, a remarkable moment for the centuries-old church which counts around 85 million followers worldwide.

The service was attended by about 2,000 invited guests, including the heir to the throne, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine.

In keeping with custom, Mullally began the ceremony by knocking three times on the cathedral’s west door with a staff to seek entry. 

Dressed in deep yellow-gold robes, she was welcomed by local schoolchildren who asked why she had been sent.

“I am sent as archbishop to serve you, to proclaim the love of Christ and with you to worship and love him with heart and soul, mind and strength,” she replied.

The ritual concluded with Mullally being seated in two thrones, symbolising her twin responsibilities as diocesan bishop of Canterbury and as the senior spiritual figure within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

She succeeds Justin Welby, who resigned in November 2024 following criticism of his handling of a historic abuse case. 

A report found that the Church of England had covered up a serial abuse scandal dating back to the 1970s and that Welby failed to alert authorities when the allegations resurfaced in 2013.

Mullally has promised safeguarding will be central to her leadership. 

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The Church of England became the country’s established church after King Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 1530s. 

The British monarch remains its supreme governor, while the Archbishop of Canterbury is regarded as the spiritual focus of Anglicanism worldwide.

Married with two children, Mullally is the 106th holder of the office, which dates back to the late sixth century. 

Before entering ordained ministry, she spent more than 30 years in the National Health Service, rising to become England’s chief nursing officer in 1999.

Ordained as a priest in 2002, she later became the first woman Bishop of London in 2018, only four years after the Church of England approved women bishops following prolonged internal debate.

While several Anglican provinces have long accepted women bishops, with the first appointed in the United States (US) in 1989, opposition remains in parts of the communion. 

The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, Laurent Mbanda, has argued that many Anglicans believe the Bible supports a male-only episcopacy.

In England, however, change has gathered pace with more than 40 of the church’s 108 bishops are now women, with similar proportions among parish clergy.

This is seen as a steady shift since women were first ordained as priests in the early 1990s.