By Michael Gryboski, Editor Thursday, March 26, 2026

Dame Sarah Mullally has been installed as the archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England and, by extension, the global Anglican Communion.

At a service held Wednesday at Canterbury Cathedral, Mullally's public ministry as archbishop officially begins, having been invested with the legal functions of the office in January.

During her sermon at the service, the 64-year-old Mullally noted that “the teenage Sarah who put her faith in God” would “never have imagined the future that lay ahead, and certainly not the ministry to which I am now called.”

She spoke about how some members of the global Anglican community were unable to attend the installation due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

“We pray for them without ceasing, and for all those in war-torn areas of the world, in Ukraine, in Sudan and Myanmar, that they would know God’s presence with them, just as we pray for peace to prevail,” said Mullally.

She also told those gathered that “we are called to trust that nothing will be impossible with God, even when we see so much in the world that makes hope seem impossible.”

“But there is hope, because we make this journey with God. We do not bear the weight of this calling in our own strength, but only in the grace and power of God,” she added.

“We walk with God, trusting that God walks with us, trusting that in all that we face — in the sorrow and the challenges as much as in the joy and the delight — we do not walk alone. There is hope, because we are invited to trust that God will do a new thing.”

Initially a nurse who treated cancer patients, Mullally was ordained to the priesthood in 2001 and had served as the bishop of London since 2018. She was elected archbishop last October, succeeding the Rev. Justin Welby, who resigned in January of last year.

Mullally’s election stirred controversy among theological conservatives within the Anglican Communion, partly due to some of her progressive theological views, as well as the belief among some that women should not be in church leadership positions.

The Global Anglican Futures Conference was among the critics. The Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, issued a statement arguing that the Church of England had “chosen a leader who will further divide an already split Communion.”

“For over a century and a half, the Archbishop of Canterbury functioned not only as the Primate of All England but also as a spiritual and moral leader of the Anglican Communion,” Mbanda stated.

“However, due to the failure of successive Archbishops of Canterbury to guard the faith, the office can no longer function as a credible leader of Anglicans, let alone a focus of unity.”

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