A woman will lead the Church of England for the first time in the history of the centuries-old institution. The Rev. Sarah Mullally was appointed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, the U.K. government announced, which will soon formally make her the spiritual leader of over 85 million people who practice the Anglican faith globally.
Mullally, who is a former nurse in Britain’s National Health Service, will officially become the archbishop at a ceremony in London at St. Paul’s Cathedral in January. For the past seven years, Mullally has served as the bishop of London, where she was also the first woman to hold that position. She had previously been the most senior U.K. government adviser on nursing as the government’s chief nursing officer for England, and was the youngest person ever to be appointed to that post.
King Charles III — who is the supreme governor of the Church of England, a largely symbolic role that dates back to the church’s foundation under King Henry VIII — congratulated Mullally on the appointment Friday.
“His Majesty congratulates Bishop Sarah on her appointment as archbishop-designate, a role which is of such importance in the UK and across the global Anglican Communion,” a palace spokesperson told CBS News’ partners at BBC News.
Reuters/Toby Melville
In a statement Friday, Mullally said that she “looks 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.”
“At every stage of that journey, through my nursing career and Christian ministry, I have learned to listen deeply – to people and to God’s gentle prompting – to seek to bring people together to find hope and healing,” she said.
The Anglican church, which Mullally will soon lead, has been mired in controversy over the past year. Her predecessor Justin Welby resigned last November after a review found that he and other senior church leaders had covered up the sexual and physical abuse of over 100 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and other countries by a British lawyer who helped lead Christian summer camps in multiple countries.
Welby was not accused of committing any abuse himself, but an independent report found that leadership at the highest levels, including Welby, had known about the abuse.