Sarah Mullally appointed first woman to lead Church of England

LONDON - Sarah Mullally was on Friday named the new Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England -- which can trace its origins to the Roman empire -- and the global Anglican community.

Her nomination by a committee tasked with finding a successor to Justin Welby, who stepped down earlier this year over an abuse scandal, has been approved by King Charles III, the UK government said.

The Church of England is the mother church of global Anglicanism. Mullally, 63, becomes the church's 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first having been appointed in the late sixth century.

In a statement, the former nurse acknowledged the "huge responsibility" of her new role, but said she feels a sense of "peace and trust in God to carry me".

Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the appointment of the first woman to hold the role.

"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 report found the Church of England had covered up a 1970s serial abuse case and that he failed to report the abuses to authorities when they came to his attention in 2013.

According to the independent probe, John Smyth, a lawyer who organised evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, was responsible for the abuse of as many as 130 boys and young men.

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Smyth died aged 75 in South Africa in 2018 while under investigation by British police. He never faced any criminal charges.

The scandal shocked the UK and prompted widespread calls for reform in the Church of England, whose supreme governor is the British monarch.

The Church of England has some 20 million baptised members, but the number of regular churchgoers is estimated at just under one million, according to figures for 2022.

Mullally was appointed by King Charles III following a lengthy selection process under a former head of the MI5 domestic security service.

The Anglican Church became the established state church following King Henry VIII's split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s.

Mullally was ordained a priest in 2002 and became the first female Bishop of London in 2018.

The church only began allowing women bishops in 2014 after years of bitter factional wrangling.

Some churches around the Anglican world -- which collectively boasts some 85 million followers in more than 165 countries -- had long permitted 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 proportion among priests, after women clergy were first permitted in the early 1990s.