Storied Religious Role Finally Goes to a Woman

England's former chief nursing officer is now the spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans. Dame Sarah Mullally, the current Bishop of London, has been named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. She is the first woman to hold the role in its 1,400-year history and the first female leader of the Church of England in its nearly 500-year history, reports CNN. Her selection comes a decade after the Church of England first allowed women to become bishops, with Mullally herself consecrated as Bishop of Crediton in 2015, the Guardian reports.

Mullally was selected after a process that the New York Times reports was "as mysterious as the conclave" that selected Pope Leo XIV, but a lot lengthier, taking 11 months instead of 17 days. The Crown Nominations Commission, including five global Anglican representatives for the first time, selected her after months of debate, passing her name to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and then to King Charles III. Like every monarch since Henry VIII, the king is officially the church's supreme head.

Mullally became a Christian at 16 and worked as a cancer nurse before she was ordained. "As I respond to the call of Christ to this new ministry, I do so in the same spirit of service to God and to others that has motivated me since I first came to faith as a teenager," she said in a statement, per the Guardian. "At every stage of that journey, through my nursing career and Christian ministry, I have learned to listen deeply—to people and to God's gentle prompting—to seek to bring people together to find hope and healing." Mullally, 63, is set to formally assume the role in a ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral in January, with a larger enthronement service to follow.

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Her predecessor, Justin Welby, stepped down amid a sexual abuse scandal last year. An independent report found that he failed to take action against a man who abused an estimated 130 boys and young men. The Times notes that in some ways, Mullally is seen as a "safe choice" to restore the church's reputation. She will be 64 when she officially takes the role, six years below the mandatory retirement age of 70. "She's very much a known quantity," says Church Times staff writer Francis Martin. "She's not a surprise choice, even if a historic and unprecedented one."