When the chips are down, what qualities do you search for in a pacesetter? Someone who can offer a stirring speech or a strategic vision might spring to mind. But when a storm comes, there’s something to be said for a relaxed voice and a firm hand on the tiller. And with this morning’s historic announcement that Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London, is to be our 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, that is precisely what the Church of England has chosen.
Bishop Sarah will not be an evangelical. She has previously led on the Living in Love and Faith process, and described the vote in 2023 to approve same-sex blessings as a “moment of hope for the Church” noting that there have been prayers “inside that suite that I might use”. But she has all the time been aware of the differences of opinion across the Church of England on this, and other, issues, adding “I do know that what now we have proposed as a way forward doesn’t go nearly far enough for a lot of but too far for others.”
In her diocese she is well-known for attending services at parishes, where on grounds of theological conviction, they’re unable to receive the ministry of girls bishops or priests, despite her not with the ability to fully take part in services. She is gracious in looking for to bring unity, even at personal cost. She is committed to making sure there may be an area and a spot in our church for everybody, showing this with actions in addition to words, holding each people and process central.
There has been one high profile safeguarding crisis in London diocese, though Bishop Sarah was indirectly answerable for the investigation, some have expressed their unhappiness about her role on this. It is feasible that, with ongoing media speculation and digging likely, her role on this case could also be clarified and explained more in the approaching days and weeks. She said this morning that the church must confront the dynamics of power, as now we have “often didn’t recognise or take seriously the misuse of power in all its forms”.
Bishop Sarah is understood to be pastoral and practical in her leadership style, supporting not only clergy in her area, but others who have gotten in contact, including lay people. She has provided advice and support for other latest bishops. Emails are replied to warmly and pastorally, whoever you’re – perhaps a small thing, but every little helps! This is a pacesetter who wants everyone to know that they’ve been heard, even when the consequence cannot please everyone.
My personal experience of her is that she is caring, calm, competent, and just the form of woman you’d want around in a crisis.
A former cancer nurse and ward sister, in 1999 on the age of 37 Bishop Sarah was appointed because the youngest ever Chief Nursing Officer for England (and in 2005 was made a Dame for her services to nursing). She saw nursing as a chance to reflect the love of God. She went on to coach for ordination alongside her nursing role, and was ordained in 2001. In 2015 she was ordained because the Bishop of Crediton – the fourth woman to turn out to be a bishop within the Church of England. She is usually asked what it has been prefer to have two careers – but to her mind, she has all the time had only one vocation – “to follow Jesus Christ, to know Him and to make Him known, all the time looking for to live with compassion within the service of others, whether as a nurse, a priest, or a bishop”. She has used the gift of her experience as a nurse for such a time as this, speaking out powerfully against assisted dying, leading a debate on this at General Synod, along with significant speeches within the House of Lords. Her maiden speech there paid tribute to the NHS on its seventieth anniversary: “I’m the Bishop I’m today due to that first vocation to nursing, and compassion and healing are constants at the center of who I’m.”
Bishop Sarah has successfully held together a notoriously difficult diocese with huge differences in theology. She was arguably not the strongest preacher on the (rumoured!) shortlist. She is probably not probably the most charismatic. In the past she has been labelled a bureaucrat. But her ability to navigate the quagmire of systems (and mountains of paperwork!) of the fashionable Church of England successfully is all of the more impressive given her dyslexia, and struggle with each reading and writing. She is a non-anxious presence, smart and warm, and authentic – it was deeply moving when at General Synod in February this 12 months she spoke concerning the microaggressions she has experienced within the church as a lady, when she became unexpectedly emotional. Her husband, Eamonn, who she met initially at a student halls of residence, after which got to know higher through an area church, said in 2019 that “Sarah has all the time been a trailblazer, changing the world quietly by getting alongside people and sharing the love of Christ”. Her opening speech has talked about hope – and didn’t shrink back from addressing the problems the church has had previously around safeguarding. She has spoken of a desire to bring people together to search out hope and healing.
As she now moves to take up a latest ministry as Archbishop of Canterbury, we see significant divisions within the Church of England and the broader Anglican Communion. We face fractious times ahead each nationally and as we take a look at global geopolitics. You cannot please all of the people all the time, and large challenges now lie ahead for those of us who love Jesus as we attempt to call the nation back to Him, praying into the hope of a “quiet revival”. If we will imagine that God’s revival is now coming to England quietly, perhaps this is the reason He has now given us an Archbishop who we will pray will provide us with a confident, compassionate leadership. She was recently asked, one imagines in the course of the appointments process for Archbishop, that if she was called to this role, what would her legacy be? She told us this morning that her reply was that she “would need to nurture and cultivate confidence within the gospel, each inside individuals and across churches, within the Church of England and the broader Anglican Communion”.
We may not think she has got the whole lot right, either previously or in the longer term. Many readers will likely be praying for a change of heart and mind on a number of the church’s contentious issues. In her address this morning she was only too aware of the challenges she personally will face: “I is not going to all the time get things right, but I’m encouraged by the psalmist, who tells us that though you stumble, you shall not fall headlong. The Lord holds you fast by your hand. I trust in the reality of those words, for me, for you, for the Church of England, for the nation, the Anglican Communion, and for the world held fast by the Lord’s hand, please pray for me as I pray for you.” Let us uphold her in prayer as she faces an almost unattainable task in service to the Church.
This article was first published in Evangelicals Now and is printed here with permission.
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