Sarah Mullally Appointed as First Female Archbishop of Canterbury

Dame Sarah Mullally has been announced as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, with conservative Anglicans condemning the liberal bishop’s appointment as “committing live action, slow-mo (but not that slow) suicide”. The Telegraph has more.

Her election was announced on Friday morning and the appointment has been approved by the King in his capacity as head of the Church of England.

The new Archbishop, 63, was previously Bishop of London, and was made a Dame in 2005 in recognition of her former role as chief nursing officer for England.

The appointment follows the conclusion of the third and final Crown Nominations Commission meeting, which took place on Friday. The group of 17 people, led by Lord Evans, the former MI5 chief, had to agree with a two-thirds majority on who the next Archbishop should be.

The new Archbishop has been outspoken about the challenges facing female priests as well as a vocal opponent of the Assisted Dying Bill.

She has championed safeguarding reforms in the Church of England and described the vote in favour of blessings for same-sex couples as a “moment of hope”. She also co-signed letters against the former Conservative government’s Rwanda policy on illegal migration.

The post of Archbishop has remained vacant for nearly a year since Justin Welby was forced to resign following a report into his handling of the worst abuse scandal in the Church’s history.

An independent review found John Smyth, an evangelical Christian, had perpetrated brutal sexual, physical and mental abuse against more than 120 boys and young men since the late 1970s.

The review also found that Smyth’s “abhorrent abuse” could have been exposed four years earlier if Bishop Welby had contacted the authorities.

Dame Sarah will legally become Archbishop of Canterbury at a ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral in January, followed by a formal enthronement service at a later date where members of the royal family are likely to be present. …

Dame Sarah’s ordination followed her career as a nurse, which culminated with her tenure as chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

She was educated at South Bank University, London, and Heythrop College, University of London, and trained for ministry at the South East Institute of Theological Education.

She completed her title at St Saviour Battersea Fields, in the Diocese of Southwark, and was ordained as a priest in 2002.

In 2006, she was appointed team rector, Christ Church, Sutton, Southwark and then became canon residentiary and treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral in 2012.

In 2015, she was consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Crediton, in the Diocese of Exeter, and in 2018 took up her role as Bishop of London as well as Dean of the Chapels Royal from 2019.

Worth reading in full.

On X, conservative Anglicans lamented the choice as failing to rise to the moment of the quiet revival of Christianity in the UK, particularly among young men. Capel Lofft wrote:

What were those who chose the Archbishop of Canterbury thinking? A Christian revival dawns, but what is appealing to people is the old ways: traditional, full-fat Christianity. So we appoint the most liberal, progressive, hectoring A of C who will put off those people. Genius.

Those who make decisions in the Church of England could not, if they tried, go about destroying us, undermining our faith and making us contemptible in the eyes of other Christians any more effectively if that was their conscious design.

We have the best context for bringing people to Christ through the Church of England in many generations. We are doing everything to spaff that opportunity up the wall. We’re basically committing live action, slow-mo (but not that slow) suicide. Unbelievable.

Unfortunately the appointment was almost bound to be a liberal on this occasion, as there is an unwritten convention that the Archbishop post alternates between an Anglo-Catholic, who is typically liberal in outlook, and an Evangelical, who is typically conservative – though you wouldn’t know it from Justin Welby, and ‘conservative’ in the C of E usually just means theologically conservative rather than politically. Painfully few Anglican clergy are politically conservative – for instance, only 19% voted for Brexit, and only one bishop admitted to supporting Leave, despite two thirds of those who identify as Anglican supporting Leave.

Since they were bracing for a liberal, many conservative Anglicans see Mullally as the ‘least-worst option’. Which in itself speaks volumes about the state of the C of E. Expect more Leftist anti-white race-baiting, including ludicrous ‘reparations‘, and mindless opposition to immigration controls, but these are practically universal among C of E higher ups (and clergy generally), so there’s scant chance of that changing any time soon. Don’t expect a big further push for divisive same-sex marriage reforms in the church during Mullally’s tenure, though there’s still plenty of room to upset everybody with what’s already on the table. That’s all due to come to a head in February at General Synod, which will be the new Archbishop’s first real test to see if she can steer a course that holds the church together (and not, like Welby, just winds everybody up). Conservatives will have no confidence that Mullally has any deep-founded commitment to remaining faithful to traditional Christian teaching, but they will hope that her desire to keep them on board will restrain any instinct to push for further departure.