Bishop of London Sarah Mullally will be first woman to hold office
Archbishop Shane Parker, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has called Bishop of London Sarah Mullally’s appointment as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury a “timely and inspired” choice for the primate of the Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Communion Office announced Oct. 3 that King Charles III had approved the nomination of Mullally—who has served as bishop of London since 2018, and previously served as Bishop of Crediton in the diocese of Exeter—as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Mullally will be formally installed as the Church of England’s senior bishop in March 2026 in a service at Canterbury Cathedral.
In a letter sent to Mullally the day of the announcement, Parker extended “warm congratulations, many blessings and strong support” to her on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada as she took on the role of archbishop of Canterbury. He said Canadian Anglicans across the country would be praying for her.
“I think the selection of Archbishop-designate Sarah Mullally is timely and inspired,” Parker said in an email to the Anglican Journal. “She is a highly respected and experienced leader and a wise, kind and decent human being. She is well-known and appreciated by many members of the Canadian House of Bishops, and has been a guest here as recently as last year. I believe she, in turn, has a sincere appreciation for the Anglican Church of Canada.”
“Archbishop-designate Mullally personifies the thoughtful Christianity that is at the heart of the Anglican tradition,” he added. “Her public comments about a number of matters reflect balance and careful consideration of the need to acknowledge differences, with a view to maintaining unity rather than feeding division—and always seeking to be guided by and faithful to Christ.”
The previous archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigned on Nov. 12, 2024 after an investigation determined that he failed to inform police after becoming aware of physical and sexual abuse by the late John Smyth, a high-profile lawyer and volunteer at Christian summer camps.
Before her ordination in 2001, Mullally worked as a nurse, specializing in caring for cancer patients. From 1999 to 2004 she served as chief nursing officer for England, the government’s most senior advisor on nursing issues—at 37, she was the youngest person to ever hold the role—as well as the National Health Service’s (NHS) director of patient experience for England.
Since 2024, Mullally has served as chair of the board of trustees for Christian Aid, an ecumenical relief and development charity that includes 41 Christian denominations in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
In a message to the Anglican Communion, Mullally said she looked forward to working alongside her fellow primates and bishops, learning from each province and joining the Anglican Consultative Council when it meets in 2026.
“My prayer for the Anglican Communion is that we will continuously respond to the hope of the gospel with confidence and conviction,” Mullally said. “In our world today, millions are suffering from the effects of war, conflict, injustice and inequality in many forms. Globally and locally, there is much to discourage and divide us.
‘Yet in these times, we are called to bear with one another in love, extending grace and standing as witnesses to Christ’s reconciling power. Let us be a communion that strives to bridge divisions, look outward in compassion, and stand with the vulnerable, modelling the love of God that knows no boundaries.
“As I prepare for this ministry, I am committed to listening deeply, serving faithfully, and fostering unity and mutual support throughout the Anglican Communion.”
Mullally is ‘able administrator’, but may face challenges navigating contentious theological issues: Anglican scholar
Christopher Brittain, dean of divinity and professor of Anglican studies at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, said he was not surprised by Mullally’s selection as Archbishop of Canterbury, since she was as a frontrunner during the nomination process.
Noting the twofold nature of the archbishop of Canterbury’s role, as both primate of the Church of England and ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion, Brittain said Mullally is “obviously a very able administrator” given her experience. “I think she’s got a lot of potential to be very effective in that sort of capacity” of running the Church of England, he said, as well as addressing issues facing the church and English society more broadly.
Brittain pointed to Mullally’s experience as the church’s lead bishop for health and social care issues, becoming a vocal opponent of proposed legislation that would allow medical assistance in dying. “I think she’s going to be a strong voice in that debate,” he said.
Mullally has also served on the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Steering Group, which oversees how the church protects children and vulnerable people from abuse within the church.
“This is a huge problem in the Church of England, and it’s largely the issue that led to Archbishop Justin Welby’s resignation,” Brittain said of such abuse. “That’s a huge gaping wound in the Church of England and she’s not new to this problem. Given her background and her administrative skills, I think she is well placed to offer really important leadership to the Church of England and as it navigates dealing with this issue.”
The biggest challenge for Mullally in addressing controversial theological issues, Brittain said, may be her leadership of the Living in Love and Faith consultation from 2020 to 2023—the Church of England’s consultation on human sexuality that approved prayers and blessings for same-sex couples, though it did not approve same-sex marriage.
Approval of same-sex blessings “remains very controversial within the Church of England and it has led her to be labelled as a theological liberal,” Brittain said. Among “traditional Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals within the Church of England, many will view her with suspicion because of that alignment,” he said.
Mullally’s status as the first female archbishop of Canterbury may also pose a challenge, he said, since many Anglicans both within the Church of England and across the Anglican Communion continue to oppose women’s ordination.
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON), a worldwide group of conservative Anglican churches, strongly opposed Mullally’s selection as archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Laurent Mbanda, chair of GAFCON and primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, said in a statement on behalf of the group that Mullally’s appointment “makes it clearer than ever before that Canterbury has relinquished its authority to lead.”
Mbanda specifically criticized Mullally’s gender as well as her vote in favour of the blessing of same-sex marriages within the Church of England. He claimed that “the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy. Therefore, her appointment will make it impossible for the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as a focus of unity within the Communion.” Even more concerning for GAFCON, Mbanda said, was the fact that Mullally “has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality.”
In remarks from Canterbury Cathedral on Oct. 3, Mullally said that “in an age that craves certainty and tribalism, Anglicanism offers something quieter but stronger.”
Such an approach to leadership, however, may prove difficult in an age of social media and a time of increased polarization, Brittain said, where powerful symbolic roles such as the archbishop of Canterbury are often at the centre of heated debates.
“I think if she’s going to be effective, she’s going to have to find ways to offer some rather clear symbolic actions that are noticed and get attention rather than sort of quietly working determinedly and firmly behind the scenes,” Brittain said.
