Dame Sarah Mullally has been installed as the 36th Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to hold the role.
Two thousand guests attended the ceremony, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch.
Among the Catholic representatives were Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe OP, Cardinal Koch, president of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark. Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster, who was recently installed himself, read the first reading, which was taken from the prophet Isaiah.
Imam Qari Asim from the British Muslim Network and Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, were among the interfaith representatives.
Falling on the feast of the Annunciation, the Gospel reading was taken from the first chapter of Luke and read by Alba Sally Sue, the Anglican Bishop of Mexico, in Spanish, with the African Choir of Norfolk singing the acclamation in Swahili.
Dr William Adam, the Archdeacon of Canterbury, installed Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury in the cathedra, the bishop’s chair, before David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, installed her in the Chair of St Augustine, which symbolises her position as ‘primus inter pares’ (first among equals) within the Anglican Communion.
Music included All Shall Be Well, composed by Joanna Marsh with text taken from the 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love.
Attendants were told, “Through the ceremony, legality and formality of this service, we are invited like Mary to say our own ‘yes’ to God.” They were also reminded that they were there to “welcome our 106th Archbishop of Canterbury and our first female archbishop on this Feast traditionally known in England as Lady Day.” In what seemed to be a reference to internal divisions within the Anglican Communion, the order of service also pointed to Archbishop Mullally’s advice that “if we wish to go fast, we go alone, but if we are to go farther, we should go together.”
In her sermon, Archbishop Mullally emphasised the feast of the Annunciation and the role of Mary in salvation history. Reflecting on her own experiences, she said: “As I look back over my life at the teenage Sarah who put her faith in God and made a commitment to follow Jesus, I could never have imagined the future that lay ahead, and certainly not the ministry to which I am now called. Mary followed in the footsteps of the faithful.”
She further said: “Mary’s journey wasn’t easy, and she faced unimaginable challenges. The sword of grief and pain pierced Mary’s soul, just as Simeon had foretold, most of all on the Cross, yet even that was transformed into the joy and hope of the Resurrection.”
Sarah Mullally’s installation as Archbishop of Canterbury comes at a time of considerable challenge for the Anglican Communion.
GAFCON (Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans) has been at the centre of challenges to authority within the Communion. GAFCON, which claims to represent 85 per cent of the world’s practising Anglicans, formed in 2008 in response to a perceived sense that the Anglican Communion was deviating from biblical principles. Earlier this month the group met in Nigeria’s capital to elect its own leader within the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda, who does not believe women should be bishops, was elected chairman.
While there is no authority over the entire Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury is seen as having a symbolic leadership role which encourages unity. Sarah Mullally inherits a Communion divided, where many adherents no longer attribute authority to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury.
