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Dame Sarah Mullally becomes the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman in the role, installed at Canterbury Cathedral with global Anglican significance.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally poses for a photo after an 87-mile pilgrimage from London to Canterbury Cathedral, in Canterbury, England, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Image Courtesy: Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
Dame Sarah Mullally, 63, was installed on Wednesday at Canterbury Cathedral as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman in more than 1,400 years to hold the office. The ceremony, falling on the Feast of the Annunciation, was attended by Prince William, Princess Catherine, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Her ascension to the post follows the November 2024 resignation of her predecessor, Justin Welby, who stepped down after criticism over his handling of sexual abuse allegations at a church-affiliated summer camp.
Mullally legally became Archbishop on January 28, 2026, after her election was confirmed at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, but Wednesday’s ceremony at Canterbury was the formal, symbolic start of her public ministry. More than 2,000 people attended the installation. She knocked on the cathedral’s Great West Door, sought admission, and was welcomed inside by local schoolchildren. Near the ceremony’s close, she was enthroned in St Augustine’s Chair, a marble seat from the early 13th century.
Who Is The Archbishop Of Canterbury?
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop, or first among equals, of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide governing body of 85 million Anglicans. The role is ceremonial and serves as the head of a worldwide association that spans 165 countries and 42 autonomous provinces. The office traces its origin to 597 AD, when Pope Gregory I sent the monk Augustine to Britain to bring Christianity to its Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and the cathedral in southeast England that bears his name has been the seat of that church ever since.
The Archbishop holds no absolute authority over the global Communion in the way the Pope governs Roman Catholics. The role rests on moral and symbolic primacy and is one of four instruments of unity for the worldwide Communion. The Archbishop’s role is largely symbolic and dependent on persuasion, unlike the Pope, who wields clear authority over Catholics worldwide. Mullally’s name is now the 106th engraved on stone slabs inside Canterbury Cathedral, at the end of a list of men stretching back fourteen centuries.
From Cancer Ward To St. Augustine’s Chair
Born in Woking, Surrey, Mullally received clinical training in nursing from St Thomas’ Hospital and practised primarily in South London, where she also began her study for ministry in the Church of England. She became the youngest person ever appointed to the post of Chief Nursing Officer for England in 1999, when she was 37. She began training for ministry while still in that government role and was ordained as a priest in 2001. She described leaving her NHS post in 2004 as “the biggest decision I have ever made.”
She was consecrated as the Bishop of Crediton in 2015, among the first women to become bishops in the Church of England, which had ordained its first female priests in 1994. In 2018, she became Bishop of London, the third most senior position in the church.
At the ceremony, she wore a clasp decorated with the belt buckle from her old nurse’s uniform. She also wore a ring given to former Archbishop 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. Before the ceremony, Mullally completed a six-day, 87-mile walking pilgrimage from St Paul’s Cathedral in London to Canterbury, the first Archbishop in the modern era to make the journey.
London, United Kingdom (UK)
March 25, 2026, 5:33 PM IST
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