Sarah Mullally Enthroned as Church of England First Female Archbishop
The solemn installation drew 2,000 attendees, among them the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince William and Princess Catherine, marking the occasion as one of both ecclesiastical and national significance.
In her inaugural sermon, Mullally reflected with visible humility on the improbability of her journey to the role.
"As I look back over my life – at the teenage Sarah, who put her faith in God and made a commitment to follow Jesus – I could never have imagined the future that lay ahead, and certainly not the ministry to which I am now called," said Mullally in her first sermon as archbishop.
Last October, the Church of England announced that Mullally, 64 — the Bishop of London and a former cancer nurse — would succeed Justin Welby as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Welby stepped down in November 2024 following accusations that he failed to act sufficiently on information he possessed regarding a prolific child abuser, allowing further abuse to occur.
The Church of England had formally cleared the path for female bishops in July 2014, with enabling legislation taking effect later that year in a watershed moment for the institution's leadership structure.
Mullally's appointment as Bishop of London in 2017 — the first woman to hold that post — reignited longstanding internal debates over gender and sexuality within the Church. When pressed on her position regarding human sexuality at the time, she said: "It is a time for us to reflect on our tradition and scripture, and together say how we can offer a response that is about it being inclusive love."
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