Sarah Mullally,made history on Wednesday, 25 of April 2026 when she was formally enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the centuries-old church of the world’s 85 million-strong Anglican community.
The ceremony took place at Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England before an audience of around 2,000 people, including Prince William and Princess Catherine.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and religious leaders from around the world were also in attendance. Although Mullally legally took up the role in January, Wednesday’s installation marked the symbolic start of her ministry.
In accordance with tradition, the ceremony began with Mullally knocking three times with a staff on the cathedral’s west door to request admission, where she was greeted by local schoolchildren. Dressed in deep yellow-gold robes, she declared she had been “sent as archbishop to serve you, to proclaim the love of Christ.”
In her inaugural sermon, Mullally prayed for “peace to prevail” in war-ravaged regions of the world, and acknowledged the sufferings caused by the church’s past safeguarding failures, stressing the need to “remain committed to truth, compassion, justice and action.”
Mullally becomes the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury and brings a remarkable background to the role she worked in the UK’s National Health Service for more than three decades, rising to become its chief nursing officer for England in 1999. Ordained a priest in 2002, she became the first female Bishop of London in 2018.
Her appointment drew sharp criticism from the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference, made up largely of churches in Africa and Asia that oppose women’s leadership, though the bloc recently abandoned earlier plans to appoint a rival parallel figurehead.
Her predecessor, Justin Welby, resigned in 2024 following a child abuse cover-up scandal , leaving Mullally to lead the church through a significant period of healing and reform.
