A former nurse has made history after being enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to lead the centuries-old mother church of the world’s 85 million-strong Anglican community.
Sarah Mullally, 63, formally steps into the role after an abuse scandal led to the departure of her predecessor.
The former midwife was formally installed in the historic ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England in front of around 2,000 people, including heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Princess Catherine.
In accordance with tradition, the ceremony began with Mullally knocking three times with a staff on the cathedral’s west door to request admission.
Dressed in deep yellow-gold robes, she was greeted 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 responded.
The ceremony then culminated with Mullally being seated in two different thrones.
The seats symbolise the dual responsibilities of the role – as a bishop in the diocese of Canterbury and as the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide.
Mullally’s predecessor, Justin Welby, announced his resignation as head of the Church of England in November 2024 over failures in handling an abuse scandal.
He stepped down after a report found the Church of England had covered up a 1970s serial abuse case and that he failed to report the abuses to authorities when they came to his attention in 2013.
Mullally has stressed her commitment to “do all I can to ensure that the Church becomes safer and also responds well to victims and survivors of abuse”.
The church was “seeking to become more trauma informed, listening to survivors and victims of abuse”, she said in an interview with the BBC this week.
