I am very pleased that the Church of England, with the assistance of five voting Communion members, including the Reverend Isaac Beach of our church, has come to a decision, agreed to by the British PM and the King himself, that the Right Reverend Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
The role is important in the C of E itself and [in my view, argued elsewhere on this blog] for the Anglican Communion also. At this time, Bishop Sarah is well-positioned to be the (dare I say, "our"?) new archiepiscopal leader: a leader in the secular world, former Chief Nurse of the UK, prior to ordination, then Bishop of London, these past seven years - a complex and challenging role in a major world city.
Challenges facing the C of E have been fairly well canvassed in media articles and even on this blog - declining numbers and influence, divisions over sexuality and over missional strategy ("Save the Parish" v new initiatives in church planting etc), hurt and pain over sexual and spiritual abuse and experiences of survivors that the institutional response of the CofE has been far from adequate - I write such things not in judgement/evaluation but in reflection of what any reader of secular and ecclesiastical media in recent years would have been reading. Initial responses to Bishop Sarah's appointment are, thankfully, mostly positive, about her ability to contribute good, and kind leadership into this complex set of challenges.
Of course, there are other responses to Bishop Sarah's appointment, so that from the wider Communion, sadly, even tragically, the GAFCON and related responses are of the "this hastens the end of things" type. All very predictable. You can read the good, bad and ugly responses via links Thinking Anglicans, as always, helpfully supplies, here.
One not so predictable is that of Ian Paul at Psephizo. Potentially he could have marked her harder. He finds a lot of good in her appointment. His post is also useful for the citations he makes within it - helping readers to get a fuller sense of response to +Sarah's appointment. (Of course I don't care for what he has to say about our church in the course of his reflections (and I don't see that whatever state our church may or may not be in has anything to do with the presence of our church in the discernment and voting process - the five Communion members were chosen according to a Communion determination of how it would be best represented!).)
On a personal note, I met +Sarah at the Lambeth Conference 2022 and had a lovely conversation with her. And also with Eamonn her husband. They are are very straightforward couple to engage with and it would be lovely to think they might visit our blessed isle one day ... perhaps to re-open a cathedral????
It is absolutely worth noting that it is a good, right and proper thing that we have our first female Archbishop of Canterbury in prospect. Some comments here and there (by which, of course, I include Facebook) are derogatory about having a woman in such a role. End of the church. I am leaving the church. Etc. But, here's the thing: God loves all humanity, male and female. God in Christ died for all humanity, male and female. God through the Spirit gifts all humanity, female and male, with the gifts and the vocations the church needs to do God's work. It is a strange view of God that if the church decides to choose a leader from 100% of its membership rather than 50% of its membership that God is going to have a sulk about it. Neither should we!
So, what can we do to support Bishop Sarah in the next months, while she remains Bishop of London, but, no doubt, has many Cantabrian thoughts to think, and so will be in transition, and as she and others prepare for her official start in late January 2026 and formal, ceremonial beginning in March 2026?
Let us pray for her. We can all do that.
Postscript: whereas some Catholic/Anglo-Catholic comments I have seen either bewail +Sarah's appointment, or offer the most guarded and hesitant of responses, from the Roman Catholic church leadership itself comes this lovely and warm support, by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, who writes to +Sarah:
"Having learned of your nomination… I write to congratulate you on your appointment and to express the good wishes of the Catholic Church to you as you prepare to undertake this important service in your Church. I pray that the Lord will bless you with the gifts you need for the very demanding ministry to which you have now been called, equipping you to be an instrument of communion and unity for the faithful among whom you will serve,"
In my experience of Catholic-Anglican relationships, this kind of response is genuine, and betokens good relationship between the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as set in motion in the 1960s, continuing.
10 comments:
Congratulations to the Church of England and the Anglican Communion for this courageous and wise (and in some ways, obvious) decision. Everyone who has worked with Sarah Mullally seems to speak highly of her skills - her wisdom and groundedness, her pastoral sensitivity, and her capacity to work with difference. Then there are those who haven't met her but seem determined to construct her as an image of Western immorality, or those in the media (and some in the public) who seem to crave a more charismatic (one person even had the gall to say "sexy") choice. Goodness.
In the Quaker world we settle for leaders called "Clerks", emphasizing, in some ways, the complete unsexiness of church government and administration, and that all are called to exercise their own charismatic, non-charismatic, and diverse gifts and ministry rather than project our light onto 'special figures'.
Hear, hear! Well said, Mark.
One more nail in the coffin of the Church of England. The CofE is officially dead. See the Church of Sardis in Bk.of Revelation. It’s done like TEC, the ACoC, Scotland Wales and New Zealand. The Australians pulled back ejecting an evangelical. Funeral services coming. Have your columbarium’s ready.
TEC weren't "dead" when Bishop Budde preached her sermon at Washington National Cathedral Jan. 21 making a public plea to the US President for mercy on behalf of those vulnerable to his aggressive political agenda. I note "Anonymous" hasn't even been game to give their name!
I found Ian Paul's article quite depressing in the end. He signs off:
"I strongly suspect that Sarah’s time will be marked by very little dramatic happening—which we could do with. And in six years’ time, it could be that every senior bishopric in the C of E is occupied by evangelicals... So exciting times could be ahead, but not for some while yet."
It just sounds as polarized and stuck as, say American politics, or politics more generally throughout the world. The liberal party rallies, the conservative party rallies. The arm wrestle (for control of the church) goes back and forth.
Yes Mark, I agree. I hadn't made it down that far, thank you. In fact, I find it very depressing. And disappointing. I occasionally visit his blog and have enjoyed some of his commentary there, or on news clips. Also, he doesn't do much of a job at moderating the comments at his blog, some are really horrible. I think I'll give him and his blog a miss in future. I'll borrow that word you use occasionally.. unedifying!
Oh yes they're terrible, aren't they!
I think someone should write a book called The Algorithms of Evil. Rather fatuously, I typed "new archbishop of Canterbury" into YouTube...
got all these videos by so called Christian men, young and old, outraged that a woman was in this leadership position, trotting out theological arguments that seem so dated and dead. All these men aggressively defending their exclusive right to represent Christ and lead "His Church".
FYI Liz, if you read down the current comments on Thinking Anglicans, on the most recent Sarah Mullally post, there is a discussion about on Ian Paul's blog, including the tenor of a lot of the comments. And Ian Paul joins in the discussion.
Another take on Ian Paul's partisan comments - from Colin Coward (comments made on TA):
Ian Paul concludes his blog:
“I strongly suspect that Sarah’s time will be marked by very little dramatic happening—which we could do with. And in six years’ time, it could be that every senior bishopric in the C of E is occupied by evangelicals—a completely unintended result of Justin’s mostly liberal appointments. So exciting times could be ahead, but not for some while yet.”
The word ‘Evangelicals’ does not describe a group within the Church of England that has a common mind on theology, teaching and practice as Ian seems to assume (but knows perfectly well isn’t true. Evangelicals in the CofE occupy a wide diversity of views, from conservative to inclusive and progressive.
If the senior bishoprics Ian has in mind are indeed occupied by evangelicals in the era of Archbishop Sarah, they may all well be supportive of equality for LGBTQIA+ people and of equality in marriage.
Sarah will, whatever the outcome of appointments and whatever Synod does or doesn’t do in February 2026, preside over a church where stipendiary clergy in same-sex relationships and civil partnerships will decide to marry or convert their civil partnerships into marriage. The movement in church and society towards equality regardless of gender and sexuality will not stop.
Thanks Mark, I found the comments you referred to. My big takeaway is that he doesn't moderate the comments! This is really quite disturbing. There seems little awareness that relatively vulnerable people will visit his blog seeking to learn - like I do - and then one finds hideous un-Christlike sentiments expressed in the comments - very confronting and potentially damaging. It's almost like he doesn't view his ministry as one which could embrace folk who may be struggling - struggling with the hard-heartedness and adamant inflexibility of certain factions in the Church.
But I guess he's very much *within* one of those factions (in that he seems to want a particular side to ultimately win) rather than seek to transcend difference. Which is typical of the no-compromise faith I grew up in. He said in his post, "...on our doctrine of marriage, the tables are firmly screwed to the floor and are not for overturning." That's a particular mindset I'm very familiar with!
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