.She will be installed in March 2026
.Anglican church in Nigeria meets next week
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja with agency report
The Church of England yesterday named Sarah Mullally the next Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to serve as ceremonial head of Anglican Christianity worldwide, prompting immediate criticism from conservative church leaders in Africa, who argue that it undermines biblical authority and ecclesiastical order.
Orthodox group of the Anglican communion comprising 80 per cent of Anglicans worldwide, including the Church of Nigeria under the auspices Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), expressed displeasure over the appointment.
A bishop in the Nigerian Anglican Church said the choice was “very dangerous” because women should follow men. The Church of England’s evangelical wing also called for a halt to what it called a drift away from scripture.
The 63-year-old bishop, who once served as England’s top nurse, would, like her predecessors, face a Communion divided between conservatives and more liberal Christians over the role of women in the church and the acceptance of same-sexA couples.
While the appointment was welcomed by many religious leaders in Britain, Laurent Mbanda, archbishop of Rwanda and chairman of a global grouping of conservative Anglican churches, told Reuters that Mullally would not unite the Communion.
Bishop of London since 2018, Mullally has previously championed blessings for same-sex couples, a major source of contention in the global Anglican Communion. Homosexuality is outlawed in some African countries.
In an address in Canterbury Cathedral yesterday, she said she would seek to help every ministry to flourish, “whatever our tradition”.
On same-sex relationships, she told Reuters in an interview that the Church of England and the broader Anglican Communion had long wrestled with difficult issues.
“It may not be resolved quickly,” she added.
Mullally said she wanted the Church to tackle the misuse of power after sexual abuse scandals and safeguarding issues, and she condemned rising antisemitism following an attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday which killed two men.
The Church of England, which broke away from Roman Catholicism in the 16th century, has allowed women to be ordained as priests for more than 30 years and to become bishops for more than a decade.
Those reforms have been rejected by many churches in Africa and Asia which fall under the Anglican Communion and consider the Archbishop of Canterbury as their ceremonial head but set their own rules.
“Christ is the head of the Church, man is the head of the family, and from creation God has never handed over the position of leadership to woman,” Nigeria’s Funkuro Godrules Victor Amgbare, Bishop of Northern Izon, told Reuters in Abuja.
The Vatican, which does not allow women to be ordained as priests, welcomed Mullally’s appointment in a statement, noting that the challenges facing the Anglican church were “considerable”.
Mullally will replace Justin Welby, who resigned over a child abuse cover-up scandal and who was criticised by some Anglicans for taking an activist role on social issues.
In yesterday’s cathedral address, she spoke of the difficulties of an age which “craves certainty and tribalism” and a country which is wrestling with complex moral and political questions.
She noted the “horrific violence” of the previous day’s synagogue attack, saying it revealed “hatred that rises up through fractures across our communities”.
Mullally is a former cancer nurse who worked as England’s Chief Nursing Officer in the early 2000s. She was ordained as a priest in 2002 and became one of the first women consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England in 2015.
The married mother of two adult children said there were similarities between nursing and Christian ministry.
“It’s all about people, and sitting with people during the most difficult times in their lives,” she once told a magazine.
Linda Woodhead, professor of theology and religious studies at King’s College London, said the Church needed Mullally’s strong management skills.
“Her emphasis on unity, gentleness and strength is exactly what the Church, and nation, needs right now,” she said.
Reflecting the Church’s status as England’s established faith, the appointment was announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office and given formal assent by King Charles. The monarch has been supreme governor of the Church of England for nearly 500 years since Henry VIII broke from the pope in Rome.
David Pestell, 74, who heads a tourist guide group in Canterbury, reflected on Mullally’s predecessors.
“Some of them have been very good, some of them have been pretty bad,” he said. “Some of them have been very contentious, and some of them ended up murdered. I hope it doesn’t happen to this one. It’s delightful.”
Orthodox group, under the auspices Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), expressed displeasure over the appointment of a female – Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
Gafcon is a communion of conservative Anglican churches, aligned with the Confessing Movement, that was formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Although the Anglican Church in Nigeria had yet to respond formally to the development, the Director of Information, Mr. Akintunde Korede, said the leadership of the Anglican Church in Nigeria would most likely align with the position of Gafcon.
Korede, who spoke to THISDAY yesterday, said the Anglican Church of Nigeria, received the information about the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury and would convene a meeting next week after which it will make its position public.
However, in a statement signed by Chairman, Gafcon Primates Council, The Most Reverend Dr. Laurent Mbanda, the church leaders rejected the emergence of Dame Sarah Mullallyas new Archbishop of Canterbury, saying the appointment has further alienated Anglicans globally.
They said the new Archbishop cannot provide leadership to the Anglican Communion.
They also accused the new Archbishop of supporting same-sex relationships and that such relationships could be blessed.
The statement issued yesterday, added: “The news has finally arrived after months of prayer and long waiting. But it is with sorrow that Gafcon receives the announcement today of the appointment of Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. This appointment abandons global Anglicans, as the Church of England has chosen a leader who will further divide an already split Communion.
“For over a century and a half, the Archbishop of Canterbury functioned not only as the Primate of All England but also as a spiritual and moral leader of the Anglican Communion. In more recent times, the See of Canterbury has been described as one of the four “Instruments of Communion,” whilst also chairing the other three Instruments, namely the Lambeth Conference, the Primates Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council.
“However, due to the failure of successive Archbishops of Canterbury to guard the faith, the office can no longer function as a credible leader of Anglicans, let alone a focus of unity. As we made clear in our Kigali Commitment of 2023, we can “no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as an Instrument of Communion” or the “first among equals” of global Primates.
“We had hoped that the Church of England would take this into due consideration as it deliberated over the choice of a new Archbishop of Canterbury and would choose someone who could bring unity to a divided Anglican Communion. Sadly, they have not done so.
“Though there are some who will welcome the decision to appoint Bishop Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy. Therefore, her appointment will make it impossible for the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as a focus of unity within the Communion.
“However, more concerning is her failure to uphold her consecration vows. When she was consecrated in 2015, she took an oath to “banish and drive away all strange and erroneous doctrine contrary to God’s Word.” And yet, far from banishing such doctrine, Bishop Mullally has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality.”
Gafcon further accused the new Archbishop of failure to uphold her consecration vows, adding that when she took an oath to “banish and drive away all strange and erroneous doctrine contrary to God’s Word.”
[SRC] https://www.thisdaylive.com/2025/10/04/conservative-anglicans-kick-as-church-of-england-names-first-female-archbishop-of-canterbury/
