Sarah Mullally

• 1. Introduction

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  Sarah Mullally became the 106th archbishop of Canterbury when her election was legally confirmed at St Paul's Cathedral on the 28th of January 2026. Her working life did not begin in a cathedral close. It began on hospital wards, and for years it stayed there.

  As 106th archbishop, she is the senior bishop of the Church of England and the ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion. The office also gives her a seat among the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords. How does a nurse end up leading a worldwide church? What did the church's critics and its supporters say when she was named? And what does she believe about the questions that divide Anglicans?

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• 2. Nurse First

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  Sarah Elisabeth Bowser was born in Woking, Surrey, on the 26th of March 1962. She has two sisters and a brother. She went to Winston Churchill Comprehensive School and then to Woking Sixth Form College. She was confirmed at St. John's Church in Woking and took part in the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship.

  At the age of 16 she took up the Christian faith she has held ever since. When she had to choose her A-level subjects, she said she thought hard about what she really wanted to do. Medicine was not the answer. In her words: "I didn't want to be a doctor because I wanted to give holistic care". Her faith also shaped the choice of nursing.

  In 1980 she began a nursing degree at South Bank Polytechnic, with clinical placements at St Thomas' Hospital. She finished in 1984 with both Registered General Nurse status and a Bachelor of Science degree. A Master of Science in inter-professional health and welfare studies followed at London South Bank University in 1992.

  Her first posts were clinical ones, at St Thomas' Hospital and then at the Royal Marsden Hospital. At the former Westminster Hospital she rose to ward sister and head of practice development. Later she became director of nursing at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

  In 1999 she was appointed chief nursing officer and director of patient experience for England. No one younger had ever held those posts. She also served as a non-executive director of the English Board of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting.

  Between 2005 and 2015 she sat as an independent governor of London South Bank University. She became vice-chairperson of its board of governors and chairwoman of its policy and resources committee. She was a non-executive director of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust from 2005 to 2012. From 2012 to 2016 she held a non-executive role at Salisbury NHS Foundation. In 2016 she became a lay member of the council of King's College London.

  In the 2005 New Year Honours she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for her contribution to nursing and midwifery. That honour came after she had left the health service, in 2004, to give her working days to the church.

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• 3. Training for Ordination

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  From 1998 to 2001 Mullally trained for ordained ministry part-time at the South East Institute of Theological Education, now St Augustine's College of Theology. Those years overlapped with her time as chief nursing officer. She also studied theology at the University of Kent, where she earned a Diploma in Theology in 2001.

  On the 30th of September 2001 she was made a deacon at Southwark Cathedral. A year later, on the 5th of October 2002, she was ordained priest at Holy Trinity, Clapham. Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, conducted both services.

  From 2001 to 2004 she served her curacy as a non-stipendiary minister, which means an unpaid one, at the parish of Battersea Fields in the Diocese of Southwark. Her full-time ministry then began at St Saviour's Church in Battersea Fields, where she was an assistant curate from 2004 to 2006.

  In 2006 she graduated from Heythrop College, University of London, with a Master of Arts in pastoral theology. That same year she became team rector of the Sutton team ministry at St Nicholas Church, Sutton, London. Alongside parish duties she taught ethics in the Diocese of Southwark. She also took part in an Anglican clergy leadership programme and sat on the Church of England's dioceses commission.

  From 2012 to 2015 she was canon treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, in the Diocese of Salisbury. It was her last post before she became a bishop.

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• 4. Bishop of Crediton

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  In June 2015 the church announced that Mullally would be the next bishop of Crediton, a suffragan bishop, or assistant bishop, in the Diocese of Exeter. On the 22nd of July 2015 Archbishop Justin Welby consecrated her at Canterbury Cathedral. She and Rachel Treweek were the first women consecrated as bishops in that cathedral.

  In September 2015 she became the first woman in the Church of England to lead an ordination service. At St Mary's Church in Ottery St Mary, Devon, she ordained two deacons as priests. Their names were Leisa McGovern and Sheila Walker.

  The archbishop who consecrated her that summer, Justin Welby, would one day be the man she succeeded.

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• 5. Bishop of London

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  Richard Chartres retired as bishop of London in February 2017, and on the 18th of December 2017 it was announced that Mullally would follow him. She was the first woman to hold the post. The bishop of London ranks third among Church of England bishops, behind the archbishops of Canterbury and York.

  Between her confirmation and her installation, she was licensed as an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Exeter. That let her handle engagements tied to her former see. The college of canons of St Paul's Cathedral elected her on the 25th of January 2018. She took full legal possession of the see on the 8th of March, at the confirmation of her election at St Mary-le-Bow. She assumed her full duties at her installation at St Paul's on the 12th of May.

  On the 14th of March 2018 she was sworn of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. On the 24th of May 2018 she was introduced to the House of Lords. She sat on the Lords Spiritual benches by virtue of her office, because the bishop of London is one of five Church of England bishops who receive a seat automatically.

  On the 12th of July 2019 she became the first female dean of the Chapel Royal, again succeeding Chartres. On the 15th of July 2020 she acted as principal consecrator when Hugh Nelson and Ruth Bushyager became bishops. The archbishop of Canterbury usually takes that role, so this broke with tradition. It was also the first time a female bishop had led a consecration service in the Church of England.

  In 2023 she played a leading role in the coronation. She was one of three female prelates involved in the ceremonies.

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• 6. Canterbury

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  The Church of England announced on the 3rd of October 2025 that Mullally would become the next archbishop of Canterbury. In that office she is Primate of All England and the metropolitan bishop of the Province of Canterbury. She is the first woman to hold the post.

  She is also only the second holder of the office since the Middle Ages who does not have a degree from Oxford or Cambridge. The college of canons elected her in December. When her election was legally confirmed, she ceased to be bishop of London.

  On the 5th of February 2026 she was re-introduced to the House of Lords in her new role. On the 25th of March she was formally installed at Canterbury Cathedral, which marked the start of her public ministry as archbishop.

  The appointment drew responses from as far away as Uganda and Cape Town.

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• 7. Welcome and Opposition

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  The Church Society, a conservative evangelical group within the Church of England, said her election "creates additional problems of disunity in the Church in England and around the world". It also voiced concern about her views on same-sex relationships. Forward in Faith, a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic organisation, rejects the ordination of women as priests and bishops. Even so, it recognised her as the "true and lawful holder of that office".

  The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, known as Gafcon, is a conservative group based mostly in Africa and Asia. It expressed "sorrow" at her appointment and said the Church of England "has relinquished its authority to lead". Stephen Kaziimba of the Church of Uganda spoke of his "sadness". He pointed to "her support and advocacy for unbiblical positions on sexuality and same-sex marriage that reveal her departure from the historic Anglican positions that uphold the authority of Scripture for faith and life".

  Some Anglican churches, particularly in Africa, opposed her because of their stance on ordaining women and because of her views on blessing same-sex couples. Other Anglican groups in Africa backed her. Emily Onyango, the first female Anglican bishop in Kenya, said that "things will be done differently". She added: "We know there will be justice in the church".

  Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, called Mullally's election a "thrilling development".

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• 8. Convictions and Outreach

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  The Financial Times wrote that Mullally "is seen as a theological liberal". She describes herself as a feminist and has ordained both men and women. When she was announced as the next bishop of London, she spoke about those who cannot accept a woman as priest or bishop. She said: "I am very respectful of those who, for theological reasons, cannot accept my role as a priest or a bishop. My belief is that Church diversity throughout London should flourish and grow; everybody should be able to find a spiritual home."

  In September 2016 she became one of ten bishops on the church's reflection group on sexuality. In 2017 she said: "It is a time for us to reflect on our tradition and scripture, and together say how we can offer a response that is about it being inclusive love." Asked about LGBT people in the church, she added: "What we have to remember is this is about people, and the church seeks to demonstrate love to all, because it reflects the God of love, who loves everybody."

  In 2018 she said she supported the church's traditional teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman. In 2022 she backed the observance of LGBT+ history month. She also backed a new advisory group on the "pastoral care and inclusion of LGBT+ people in the life of our church communities".

  On abortion she has described her approach this way: "I would suspect that I would describe my approach to this issue as pro-choice rather than pro-life although if it were a continuum I would be somewhere along it moving towards pro-life when it relates to my choice and then enabling choice when it related to others." In June 2025 she opposed legislation that would extend abortion rights by decriminalising terminations in utero up to full term. She acknowledged an open letter from Anglican clergy calling the bill a "dangerous change" to the law, but she did not sign it.

  In her address shortly after her nomination, she turned to people caught up in war, poverty and the climate crisis. She named Palestinian Christians and the peoples of the Middle East, as well as Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and the DRC. She closed that passage with a prayer: "May God end the horrors of war, comfort those who mourn, and bring hope to those living in despair."

  On the 27th of April 2026 she met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. It was the first official encounter between a Pope and a female leader of the Church of England. The two agreed on unity, shared prayer and continuing to address global issues together, despite theological differences.

  In May 2026 she visited the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in north London. There she expressed solidarity with the Jewish community of the UK on behalf of the Church of England.

  In 1987 Sarah Bowser married Eamonn Mullally, an IT and enterprise architect. They have a daughter and a son and live in the City of London. After her appointment as bishop of London, the family moved into the Old Deanery of St Paul's.

  Mullally has dyslexia. She has said that she finds it difficult to read out biblical genealogies, those long lists of names that run through scripture.

  When she was announced as the next bishop of London in 2017, the title "Dame Sarah" was often left out. Using it is at her discretion.

  Her academic honours began with a fellowship of London South Bank University in 2001, followed by one at Canterbury Christ Church University in 2006. She holds honorary doctorates from Bournemouth University and the University of Wolverhampton, both in 2004, and from the University of Hertfordshire in 2005. The University of Exeter awarded her one in 2019, and the University of Plymouth in 2021. The Plymouth degree came while she was still bishop of London.

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