When Sarah Mullally was confirmed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, this meant a woman would become spiritual leader of the Church of England and worldwide Anglican communion for the first time in history. For many, it has been a welcome shift that recognises the importance of female leadership at all levels – both ecclesiastical and secular.

But some within the Church took issue with Mullally’s accession. For example, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a network of conservative Anglican churches across Africa and Asia, issued a statement declaring: “The majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy.” Its members have refused to recognise her as their archbishop.

Mullally’s accession follows a pattern, as more and more women gain access to leadership positions in churches across the world. As we show in our recent book, The First Ordained Women in the Church of Sweden: Narratives of Vocation and Recognition (2026), when their vocation to the priesthood is officially recognised, it gives them self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem. But it also elicits opposition, with the women themselves usually made responsible for keeping the peace.

On September 28 1958, after decades of ecclesial and societal calls for women’s vocation to be recognised, the Church of Sweden’s General Synod voted to open the priesthood to women. We retraced the narratives of the first 54 women who were ordained between 1960 and 1970.

Proponents of the reform referred to biblical passages such as Galatians 3:28 as promoting equality: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

To their minds, the priest is someone called not to represent Christ (as some opponents believe), but to........

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