Dame Sarah Mullally, 63, who has been named as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, has been described as a “theological liberal” who will ordain men and women to the priesthood, but also supports the inclusion of those who reject the ordination of women.
A former chief nursing officer for England, who was made a dame in 2005 in recognition of her contribution to nursing and midwifery, she has been bishop of London since 2018.
She came late to the ordained ministry, spending more than 35 years in the NHS, as a cancer nurse, then the youngest chief nursing officer for England at 37, advising government officials, before giving up her nursing position in 2004 to serve as an assistant curate in Battersea, south London.
In 2012, she became canon treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral before becoming bishop of Crediton in the diocese of Exeter in 2015.
By 2018, as bishop of London, she was the third most senior bishop in the Church of England after Canterbury and York, and with a seat in the House of Lords.
She was critical of the former Conservative government’s Rwanda policy., and a signatory with several bishops to a letter that said it “should shame us as a nation”.
Mullally has also been a very vocal opponent of the assisted dying bill, telling the House of Lords: “If passed, this bill will signal that we are a society that believes that some lives are not worth living.” When legislation passed in the Commons, she criticised it as “unworkable and unsafe and poses a risk to the most vulnerable people in our society”.
She knows the challenges she faces as a female archbishop. On becoming bishop of London, she said: “I am very respectful of those who, for theological reasons, cannot accept my role as a priest or a bishop. My belief is that church diversity throughout London should flourish and grow; everybody should be able to find a spiritual role.”
In a 2012 blog post, Mullally said of abortion: “I would suspect that I would describe my approach to this issue as pro-choice rather than pro-life, although if it were a continuum I would be somewhere along it moving towards pro-life when it relates to my choice and then enabling choice when it related to others.”
As bishop of London, she chaired a body framing the church’s decision on whether to bless same-sex marriages. She described the eventual decision to finally allow priests to bless same-sex couples in 2023 as “a moment of hope for the church”. But this remains one of many that will present challenge in the future. Same sex couples are still unable to marry in a C of E church.
At the time, she said: “I know that what we have proposed as a way forward does not go nearly far enough for many but too far for others. It is my prayer that what has been agreed today will represent a step forward for all of us within the church – including LGBTQI+ people – as we remain committed to walking together.”
A reminder that this issue will remain in her in-tray came from the conservative Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC). It said of her appointment that it wanted to see her “call the Church of England to recommit to the historic doctrines and formularies entrusted to it”.
Her appointment comes at a “difficult time” not only because of divisions within the Church of England but national and international challenges and “a significant loss of confidence in the role of the archbishop”, it said, adding it was praying she would “hold to the apostolic faith”.
