Sarah Mullally becomes the first woman responsible for directing the Anglican church

Friday, Sarah Mullally was appointed the new Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to direct the church of England during the 1,400 years of history of the role.

Mullally, 63, has been a bishop of London since 2018 and has previously defended several liberal causes within the church, in particular by allowing blessings for same -sex couples in civil partnerships and marriages.

The reforms introduced 11 years ago allowed a woman to occupy the office and, being named the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, Mullally becomes the leading woman of one of the last areas of British public life to have been led only by men.

Accepting her appointment on Friday, Mullally said she wanted to bring people together to find “hope and healing”.

“I want, very simply, to encourage the Church to continue to grow with confidence,” she said in his first statement as Archbishop.

“I can’t wait to share this journey of faith with the millions of people serving God and their communities in parishes from all over the country and through world Anglican communion.”

Mullally said that she was standing with the Jewish community against anti -Semitism after Thursday’s attack on a synagogue in Manchester, in which two men were killed.

“We, then as a Church, have the responsibility of being a people who resist the Jewish community against anti-Semitism in all its forms,” ​​she said.

Former Nursing Director

Mullally is a former cancer nurse who worked as a leader in nursing in England in the early 2000s. She pleaded for the creation of an open and transparent culture in churches that allows difference and disagreement.

“There are great common points between nursing care and the priest. Everything is about people and sitting with people during the most difficult moments of their lives,” she said once to a magazine.

Mullally was a free adversary of the legislation that would allow Assided Dying, who is currently progressing in Parliament.

She called on the plan to allow sick people in terminal phase to choose to end their lives with “impracticable and dangerous” medical aid and said that she was pose a risk for the most vulnerable society in society.

She was ordered as a priest in 2002 and became one of the first women to be consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England in 2015.

Mullally, married to two adult children, is seated in the upper room not elected from the Parliament, the Chamber of Lords, and spoke of questions such as the cost of living, health care and social justice.

About two thirds of the 85 million anglicans estimated on the world live in countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, and the appointment of the first archbishop woman could still highlight their difference with the Mother Church in England.

Gafcon, a group of conservative Anglican churches across Africa and Asia, immediately criticized the appointment of Mullally, saying that it showed that the English arm of the Church had “renounced its power to lead”.

Mullally will be installed in a service at the cathedral of Canterbury in March 2026, the government said.

The church of England has been without chief since last November, when Justin Welby resigned from a scandal of concealing children’s abuse.

Reflecting the status of the Church of England as an established Church of England, the office of Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the appointment of Mullally on Friday with the official consent of King Charles.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury will play a key role in our national life. I wish him all the success and I can’t wait to work together,” Starmer said in a statement.

As a monarch, Charles is the supreme governor of the Church of England, a role established in the 16th century when King Henri VIII separated from the Catholic Church.