In historic first, King Charles III appoints woman to be archbishop of Canterbury

(OSV News) -- King Charles III has appointed Bishop Sarah Mullally of London as the first female Anglican archbishop of Canterbury.

The historic appointment of the married mother of two was welcomed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the president of England and Wales' bishops' conference.

In an Oct. 3 statement posted on the bishops' conference website, Cardinal Nichols said that Archbishop-designate Mullally "will bring many personal gifts and experience to her new role."

The cardinal said, "The challenges and opportunities facing the new Archbishop are many and significant. On behalf of our Catholic community, I assure her of our prayers."

"Together," he added, "we will be responsive to the prayer of Jesus that we 'may all be one' ... and seek to develop the bonds of friendship and shared mission between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church."

Archbishop-designate Mullally, 63, was made a dame in 2005 for her services as former chief nursing officer.

In a statement dated Oct. 2 and released Oct. 3, she said, "As I respond to the call of Christ to this new ministry, I do so in the same spirit of service to God and to others that has motivated me since I first came to faith as a teenager."

Archbishop-designate Mullally was ordained an Anglican priest in 2002 and has served as bishop of London since 2018. She succeeds Archbishop Justin Welby, who resigned in 2024 following criticism of his handling of a clerical sex abuse crisis.

An Oct. 2 statement posted on the website of Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the archbishop of Canterbury, said that following the advice of the Crown Nominations Commission, King Charles confirmed her appointment as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury since St. Augustine of Canterbury -- a missionary -- arrived in Kent from Rome in 597 and became the first archbishop of Canterbury. He led a mission from Rome to convert England to Christianity.

The Catholic Church however believes that the apostolic succession was broken during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

Archbishop-designate Mullally will be installed in a service at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2026.

Her appointment will also make her the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which consists of about 85 million people in 165 countries.

"I want, very simply, to encourage the Church to continue to grow in confidence in the Gospel, to speak of the love that we find in Jesus Christ and for it to shape our actions," the archbishop-designate said. "And I look forward to sharing this journey of faith with the millions of people serving God and their communities in parishes all over the country and across the global Anglican Communion.

"I know this is a huge responsibility but I approach it with a sense of peace and trust in God to carry me as He always has."

Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York said Archbishop-designate Mullally is "a person of huge courage, wisdom, integrity, and experience."

"It will be my great pleasure to serve alongside her," he said, and I hope that together we can continue the work of helping the Church of England be simpler, humbler and bolder in its proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ and in our service to the nation."

In an address posted Oct. 3 on Lambeth Palace website, Archbishop-designate Mullally spoke additionally of the challenges facing Christianity in the U.K.

"Across our nation today, we are wrestling with complex moral and political questions," she said, pointing to the assisted suicide bill and also "people fleeing war and persecution to seek safety and refuge" and the "deep-rooted question of who we are as a nation, in a world that is so often on the brink."