Sarah Mullally was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, making her the first woman to lead the Church of England, which has its roots in the Roman Empire, as well as the global Anglican communion.
Mullally’s nomination by a commission tasked with identifying a successor to Justin Welby, who resigned earlier this year due to an abuse scandal, has been approved by King Charles III, the UK government confirmed.
The Church of England is the primary church of global Anglicanism. Mullally, 63, becomes the church’s 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, succeeding the first, who was appointed in the late sixth century.
In a statement, the former nurse acknowledged the “huge responsibility” of her new post but said she feels “peace and trust in God to carry me.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed the appointment of the first woman to the position.
“The Church of England is of profound importance to this country. Its churches, cathedrals, schools, and charities are part of the fabric of our communities,” he said in a statement, adding the new archbishop would “play a key role in our national life.”
Welby resigned after a study revealed that the Church of England had covered up a serial abuse case from the 1970s and that he neglected to report the acts to authorities when they were brought to his knowledge in 2013.
According to the independent investigation, John Smyth, a lawyer who ran evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, was responsible for the abuse of up to 130 boys and young men.
Smyth, 75, died in South Africa in 2018 while being investigated by British authorities. He never faced any criminal charges.
The scandal shook the United Kingdom and sparked widespread calls for reform within the Church of England, whose supreme administrator is the British monarch.
The Church of England has over 20 million baptized members, but the number of regular churchgoers is anticipated to be somewhat less than one million, according to 2022 projections.
Mullally was chosen by King Charles III following a protracted vetting process overseen by a former chief of the MI5 domestic security department.
Following King Henry VIII’s split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, the Anglican Church was created as the official church.
Mullally was ordained as a priest in 2002 and became the first female Bishop of London in 2018.
After years of fierce factional warfare, the church finally allowed women bishops in 2014.
Some churches in the Anglican world, which has 85 million followers in more than 165 countries, have long allowed women bishops, with the first appointed in the United States in 1989.
More than 40 of England’s 108 bishops are now women, with a similar number of priests since women clergy were initially allowed in the early 1990s.
