Meet The First Female Archbishop of Canterbury

A former nurse and midwife, Sarah Mullally, 63, is making history today, Wednesday, 25 March 2026, as the first woman to be installed as Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

She was formally enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England with around 2,000 people attending the ceremony, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, who represented King Charles, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

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Mullally, who previously served as Bishop of London and worked as a cancer nurse and midwife, becomes the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, leading the Church of England and the global Anglican community of about 85 million members.

It began when Mullally knocked three times with a staff on the cathedral’s west door, to request admission.

Local schoolchildren greeted her and asked why she had been sent.

“I am sent as archbishop to serve you, to proclaim the love of Christ and with you to worship and love him with heart and soul, mind and strength,” she responded.

Dressed in deep yellow-gold robes, Mullally was then installed.

She took her seat, first in the Cathedral Chair as Bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, and later in the historic Chair of St Augustine, symbolizing her wider role as leader of Anglicans worldwide.

The installation marks the symbolic start of her public ministry as the first female Archbishop in the role’s 1,400-year history.

Mullally steps into the position after her predecessor, Justin Welby, resigned in November 2024. Welby left, following an independent report that found the Church of England had covered up a serial abuse case, from the 1970s.

The report stated he failed to report the abuses to authorities, when informed in 2013.

Mullally stressed her commitment to “do all I can to ensure that the Church becomes safer and also responds well to victims and survivors of abuse”.

The church was “seeking to become more trauma informed, listening to survivors and victims of abuse”, she said in an interview with the BBC this week.