First Female Archbishop of Canterbury Named

Sarah Mullally has been named the first female Archbishop of Canterbury and is the 106th holder of the office; she will be Archbishop-designate and is scheduled to be legally confirmed in January 2026 with a formal installation to follow. She succeeds Justin Welby, who resigned amid a safeguarding scandal that left the post vacant for nearly a year. Mullally, 63, a former chief nursing officer and the Bishop of London, has supported blessings for same-sex couples and has pledged to foster unity, transparency, and “hope and healing” across the church. As ceremonial head of roughly 85 million Anglicans worldwide, her appointment highlights deep fractures between generally liberal Western provinces and socially conservative churches, especially in Africa where many dioceses refuse to ordain women. The conservative GAFCON network immediately criticized the choice, even as UK leaders including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the monarch endorsed her nomination.