When Henry VIII defied papal authority in 1534 over a single divorce case, few could have imagined that centuries later, a woman would ascend to lead the very Church that his defiance created. The appointment of Sarah Mullally as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to hold the most senior position in the Church of England, is nothing short of a historic paradigm shift. It not only signals a new era for the Anglican Communion’s 85 million believers across 165 countries, but also offers a quiet challenge to the Roman Catholic Church, where the question of women in leadership still meets an unyielding wall.

At 63, Sarah Mullally’s journey is unlike any of her predecessors. Before donning clerical robes, she wore a nurse’s uniform. A woman who spent 35 years in the National Health Service (NHS), she rose to become England’s youngest-ever Chief Nursing Officer in 1999. Her life has been shaped by healing, empathy, and service — qualities that have seamlessly translated into her ministry. “A nurse knows the pulse of the people,” as one British columnist put it, and in Mullally’s case, the metaphor extends to the pulse of the Church itself.

Her transition from the world of medicine to the realm of faith represents more than a career shift; it embodies a fusion of compassion and conviction, of listening to the pain of others and channelling it into pastoral leadership.

Ordained in 2006, Mullally’s clerical rise was swift but steady — Bishop of Crediton in 2015, Bishop of London in 2018 (the third-highest post in the Church), and now Archbishop of Canterbury. Her ascent also marks a triumph for the movement that began in 1994, when the Church of England first allowed women to be ordained as priests.

Mullally’s appointment, announced on 3 October 2025, comes nearly a year after Justin Welby stepped down amid controversy over his handling of a Church abuse case.........

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