{"id":20311,"date":"2026-03-26T19:17:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=20311"},"modified":"2026-03-26T19:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:17:53","slug":"sarah-mullally-enthroned-as-first-female-archbishop-of-canterbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=20311","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Mullally enthroned as first female Archbishop of Canterbury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sarah Mullally was enthroned \u200bas the Church of England\u2019s first female Archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday, taking the helm as the spiritual leader of 85 million \u200cAnglicans worldwide in a historic ceremony blending tradition with global symbolism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former nurse took her seat on the 13th-century Chair of St Augustine at Canterbury Cathedral before 2,000 guests, including heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his wife Kate, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and religious leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delivering her first sermon as Archbishop, Mullally \u2013 wearing a golden mitre and led by an African choir of singing \u200band dancing women for part of the service \u2013 prayed for \u201cpeace to prevail\u201d in war-ravaged parts of the world, from the Middle East and \u200bUkraine to Sudan and Myanmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I begin my ministry today as Archbishop of Canterbury, I say again to God: \u2018Here I \u2060am\u2019,\u201d she told the congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullally, 63, acknowledged the sufferings caused by the Church\u2019s past safeguarding failures, one of which caused her predecessor Justin Welby to \u200bresign, stressing the need to \u201cremain committed to truth, compassion, justice and action\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the ceremony, Bishop Philip Mounstephen, who would bless her as she was installed in the diocesan \u200bchair during the service, told Reuters that the arrival of a woman in an \u201cancient office \u2026 older than the Crown\u201d was a historic occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does signal a huge change that has taken place in the life of the Church,\u201d Mounstephen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEREMONY CAPTURES ANGLICANISM\u2019S GLOBAL REACH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mullally\u2019s appointment in October drew sharp criticism from a conservative grouping of Anglican churches in mostly African and Asian countries \u200bcalled Gafcon, the bloc this month abandoned earlier plans to name a parallel figurehead to Mullally, establishing a new council instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A representative body within the global \u200bCommunion also scrapped a previous proposal for a rotating presidency following concerns about potential rivalry with the Archbishop of Canterbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions between progressive and conservative Christians are not unique to \u200cAnglicanism, but \u2060the Archbishop\u2019s role is largely symbolic and dependent on persuasion, unlike the Pope, who wields clear authority over Catholics worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent Archbishops have struggled to bridge divisions over LGBTQ+ issues and women\u2019s leadership between England\u2019s now more progressive church and more traditionalist provinces elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bishop from the Anglican Church in Kenya, which is aligned with Gafcon, struck a more conciliatory tone as he arrived at Canterbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though we hold that this (same-sex blessings) is not acceptable, we want to argue it from within to have \u200bpeople see also the reason why \u200bwe reached that conclusion,\u201d Bishop Francis \u2060Omondi told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullally herself has emphasised unity in diversity, telling Reuters last October: \u201cWe\u2019re a family with a shared root, and with any global church there is great diversity in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARCHBISHOP KNOCKS TO BE LET INTO CATHEDRAL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of \u200bWednesday\u2019s ceremony, she knocked on the cathedral\u2019s west door, wearing a cope secured by a clasp modelled on the belt she \u200bwore as a National \u2060Health Service nurse. She was then greeted by children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullally wore a ring given to one of her predecessors, Michael Ramsey, by Pope Paul VI in 1966, a symbol of improving ties between Anglicans and Catholics, centuries after King Henry VIII split from Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayers and readings in multiple languages, including Urdu, rang through the cathedral during the service, reflecting the global \u2060reach of \u200bthe Anglican Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday marks the Feast of the Annunciation \u2013 a celebration of the biblical account of \u200ban angel telling Mary she would be the mother of Jesus \u2013 and this was the major theme of the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I look back over my life \u2013 at the teenage Sarah, who put her faith \u200bin God and made a commitment to follow Jesus \u2013 I could never have imagined the future that lay ahead,\u201d Mullally said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Mullally was enthroned \u200bas the Church of England\u2019s first female Archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday, taking the helm as the spiritual leader of 85 million \u200cAnglicans worldwide in a historic ceremony blending tradition with global symbolism. The former nurse took her seat on the 13th-century Chair of St Augustine at Canterbury Cathedral before 2,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440","service":"facebook","timestamp":1774534714,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20313,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311\/revisions\/20313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}