“Liberal” Dame Sarah Mullally has been named the next Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, one of the world’s largest, which includes such churches as the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The Anglican Communion, third largest denomination in the world after Catholic and Orthodox, given its strong presence in former British Empire nations, has a new ‘first among equals’ Archbishop after the role was vacant for almost a year after the previous incumbent resigned over a child safeguarding scandal. The appointment threatens a split in the wider church, given the conservative attitudes of many African and Asian churches that are members of the Anglican Communion.
63-year-old Dame Sarah Mullally, erstwhile Bishop of London, is a former nurse has already come under criticism from survivors of child sex abuse who say she is not distanced enough from the previous Archbishop, reports the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper described Mullally as “outspoken on a number of political and social issues”, while The Guardian describes her as a “theological liberal”.
The new Archbishop was chosen by the 14-member Church of England’s Crown Nominations Commission, chaired by a former head of the UK’s internal spying agency MI5, which advises the Prime Minister on who to choose. The Prime Minister in turn advises the King — who is the head of the Church of England — who appoints the role.
Sarah Mullally (C) arrives to be installed as the 133rd Bishop of London during a service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on May 12, 2018. Sarah Mullally was named in December 2017 as the 133rd Bishop of London, the first woman to hold the position. The Bishop of London is the third most senior position in the Anglican church behind only the Archbishops of Canterbury and York making Sarah Mullally themost senior bishop appointed by the Church of England. (Photo by Yui Mok / POOL / AFP) (Photo by YUI MOK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In the past, Mullally has signed a letter against deporting migrants, and chaired a commission on blessing gay marriages in church, calling it a “moment of hope”. Mullally has previously given rather fudged statements on abortion, but has broadly come down on the side of what she calls “pro choice”.
It is noted she wrote in 2012: “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.”
The Catholic Herald states that Mullally has “supported pro-LGBT initiatives within the Communion” but has been deeply critical of the present work to pass an assisted suicide bill through the UK Parliament.
A woman being made Archbishop of Canterbury, the oldest official position in Britain, is the logical end of a decades-long push from within the Church of England for women priests. The first women were made priests in 1994 and the first woman bishop was consecrated in 2015. This very nearly caused a split in the church in the 1990s, but was averted by a special deal struck with traditional-minded parishes which wished to maintain the historic apostolic succession with male-only priests and bishops.
The Anglican Communion is present in 165 nations worldwide and accounts for some 85 million Christians. While each church within it is independent, they agree to see the Archbishop of Canterbury as a first among equals of their bishops and a “focus of unity”.
While those arrangements are likely to sustain for now, a group of Anglican churches from Africa and Asia have already signalled their dissent, with language that seems sure to presage a split in the Communion. GAFCON, Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, said in a statement that the appointment “abandons Anglicans”.
They said: “it is with sorrow that Gafcon receives the announcement today of the appointment… 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.”
GAFCON continued: “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… 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.”
The Fellowship called on the Archbishop to repent and to work with Anglican churches to “mend the torn fabric” of the Communion. It announced it was calling a meeting of “faithful Anglicans” in Nigeria next year to discuss the matter.
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