‘…I will work with you, Synod, with my fellow bishops, and with our national church bodies, striving to ensure that the Kingdom is being nurtured everywhere – in parishes, chaplaincies, cathedrals and schools, in the smallest and most fragile communities, as well as the larger and more confident expressions of church, wherever disciples seek to be salt and light.  

I have always, in any leadership role, been committed to accountability and transparency. The way we treat one another, lay and ordained, through our various institutional processes, is vital to the health of our life together in Christ. We have too often failed to recognise or take seriously the abuse of power in all its forms. Robust and transparent processes are central to the health of any institution; proper process around appointments; clear guidelines around conduct and good processes for handling concerns, complaints and whistleblowing.  

And nowhere is accountability more imperative than in relation to safeguarding, where in the past we have fallen tragically short. Safeguarding is a fundamental, non-negotiable responsibility, sharpened by our past failings and shaped by the work we still have to do. I am committed to bringing an approach of seriousness and focussed direction to all matters relating to safeguarding in all contexts in the church. This approach must be trauma-informed, put victims and survivors at the heart of all we do and be committed to proper independence.  

I am grateful for the countless parish safeguarding officers, diocesan safeguarding professionals and the National Safeguarding Team and survivors and victims, who have worked and continue to work to make progress. Progress has been made, yet we are anything but complacent.  

We must be wholly committed to listening to victims and survivors, to independent scrutiny of our safeguarding practices, and to delivering timely and robust trauma-informed processes. We must be willing, always, for light to be shone on our actions and our decisions. We can only begin to rebuild trust and confidence through openness and integrity.’

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In her first speech as Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Dame Sarah Mullally called for an ‘independent scrutiny of our safeguarding practices’

Reporting on @ArchbishopSarah's 1st Presidential Address #synod @thetimes by @kayaburgess #GeneralSynodhttps://t.co/3Yq9S7FX7S

— Rebecca (Bex) Chapman (@bexchapman3boys) February 10, 2026

The Church of England General Synod opens in London today, with an agenda including the first address by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally.

There will be a discussion on ending the Living in Love and Faith project, a church wide discussion on same sex relations and blessings, which reached an impasse over deep divisions.

Decisions remain to be taken on stand-alone services for same sex couples and whether same sex clergy may be married in civil ceremonies.

Other issues on the agenda are safeguarding, working class clergy, poverty and banning ‘oasis’ floral foam.

The Telegraph has published a chart showing a decline in the number of people on the electoral roll of churches in each of the dioceses, a long term trend.

February's General Synod opens today.

Here's what's coming up on the first day of the Church of England’s Synod.

📺 You can also tune in live to all the events this week at https://t.co/1Sfh2FBPZS.#GeneralSynod pic.twitter.com/DSZCfQDWDI

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) February 9, 2026

The Most Revd Sarah Elisabeth Mullally became the first woman to take office as Archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday, at the confirmation in St Paul’s Cathedral of her election.

“This is our habemus mamam moment,” the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, told the congregation, her declaration a play on the words used to announce that a new pope has been elected, as the congregation began to applaud.

In the charge to the new Primate of All England, the Archbishop of York suggested that “while the world may be very interested in the fact that you are the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, I think God is very interested in the fact that this is the first time Sarah has been the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Archbishop Cottrell’s advice to her was to be herself: “Continue to be the person who exercises the gifts, wisdom, and experience that your life has given you; and continue to be the one whose life is shaped and nurtured by the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

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Election of first female #ArchbishopofCanterbury confirmed at St Paul’s Cathedral

‘Continue to be the person who exercises the gifts, wisdom, and experience that your life has given you,’ Archbishop of York tells the Most Revd Sarah #Mullallyhttps://t.co/Tykp53tKDn

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 28, 2026

Archbishops are “colluding” to dismiss an abuse investigation, a victim has claimed.

Dame Sarah Mullally, who is the current Bishop of London, will legally become the Church of England’s top bishop in a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral on Jan 28.

However, it was revealed in December that she has been the subject of a complaint over her handling of an abuse allegation in which a victim, known as Survivor N, was allegedly groped and had sexual comments made to him by a priest. 

The complaint was being looked into by the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell. On Thursday, he decided to dismiss the complaint against her.

However, The Telegraph understands that the Archbishop of York made the decision while he is also the subject of a complaint made by Survivor N, known as a clergy discipline measure (CDM), regarding his “conflict of interest” in the matter.

Read it all.

🔴 Remarks made after complaint over Dame Sarah Mullally’s handling of case is dismissed

Find out more ⬇️https://t.co/wl5m5Dg6t3 pic.twitter.com/8Ug8y8iOkW

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 9, 2026

A complaint against the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, was “not taken forward or appropriately followed up”, Lambeth Palace said in a statement on Thursday.

The claim related to the diocese of London’s and Bishop Mullally’s handling of an abuse allegation, Premier Christian News reported on Monday. The complainant, referred to as Survivor N, filed the complaint in March 2020.

The statement from Lambeth Palace said that, “due to administrative errors and an incorrect assumption about the individual’s wishes, the complaint was not taken forward or appropriately followed up.”

Bishop Mullally, who is now the Archbishop-elect of Canterbury (News, 3 October), said in a separate statement that Survivor N had been “let down by the processes of the Church of England.

“While his abuse allegations against a member of clergy were fully dealt with by the Diocese of London, it is clear that a different complaint he subsequently made against me personally in 2020 was not properly dealt with.”

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A complaint against the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, was “not taken forward or appropriately followed up”, Lambeth Palace said in a statement on Thursday#churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/1i96m3OSl7

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 11, 2025

The GAFCON leadership is calling a conference (G26) for all orthodox Anglican bishops, who can sign the Jerusalem Declaration, in Abuja Nigeria in March of next year. All are welcome. This coincidently will be about the same time as the new Archbishop of Canterbury takes up her office. Her appointment was made without adequate consideration of the wishes of the majority of Anglican churches and her apparent liberal direction of travel means they have been presented with more of the same leadership that has failed to discipline wayward Provinces and restore any semblance of unity to the Communion post the widespread agreement after the Lambeth Conference in 1998. The Chairman of GAFCON said on the news of the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury — “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”. It would appear that Dame Sarah will find herself relating to a very different world-wide Communion. 

Again, coincidently and perhaps ironically, on the same day this week it was announced that the English House of Bishops has postponed any further implementation of the “Living in Love and Faith” process, which has been causing agony and division in the church for more than a decade. This has been abandoned because of legal and theological advice that has shown the bishops what they should have known already, that their proposals change the doctrine of marriage held by the Church of England. Such a change, though possible, must follow due synodical processes and decisions, and requires a two thirds majority to alter doctrine. As the current process has been shambolic and lacking integrity, it is good to see the bishops at last consenting to adhere to proper processes. However, this looks more like a press of the pause button rather than the delete one, and means that discontent will rumble on in the church.

It is no wonder then that GAFCON, which continues to support orthodox believers in the Church of England, has lost patience with its leadership, as it sees no real evidence of repentance or a change of heart about the liberal direction of travel. It wishes to stop wasting time in pointless squabbles and to bring together those who are firm in faith to get on with the task of bringing the Good News of the Gospel to a lost and suffering world. Compassion and clarity of doctrine are not enemies but ought to go together — the grace and truth only ever perfectly shown in the person of the Lord Jesus needs to be followed as far as possible by his followers.

Bishops in the early Church were noted and respected for their courage and adherence to the Apostolic Faith. Bishops today in the West, with thankfully a number of notable exceptions, have too often become uncertain trumpets, driven by expediency, who seem to want to sanctify current fashionable opinions more than to be faithful to their ordination vows to uphold the Christian Faith as revealed in the Scriptures. This is a sad and tragic state of affairs. To quote the Dutch/American theologian R.B.Kuiper — “The church that has grown indifferent to the truth is, to put it mildly, on its way out”. GAFCON shines a light of hope to a generation looking for an alternative to the faithless, materialistic, self-absorbed answers of the current western world. 

Read it all.

Bible believing Anglicans should be pleased that the new Archbishop has been ejected from the Anglican Communion, argues W. Gilchrist https://t.co/JSVc08XHj8

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) October 22, 2025

The announcement of the choice of the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mallally, to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury has been accompanied by frequent references to the Archbishop of Canterbury as the ‘head of the Church of England’ or the ‘head of the Anglican Communion.’  In this post I shall explain why both of these statements are misleading, what roles the Archbishop of Canterbury actually has in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, and the implications of the fact that these roles are very limited.

What do we mean by ‘head?’

When thinking about these topics, the first thing we need to be clear about is what we mean when we say that someone is the ‘head’ of something. When we use the word head in this connection we are using analogical language. An analogy is being drawn between the role of the head (and more specifically what is inside the head, the brain) in the human body and the role of an individual in a particular organisation.

The analogy is between the role of the brain in determining how a human body shall act and the role of an individual in determining what happens in an organisation. Calling some the head in this way (as in the terms ‘head of state,’ ‘head teacher’ and ‘head of the armed forces’ ) means that they are the person who has the authority and ability to govern the life of the state, the school, or the armed forces. They have the right to say what will happen.

By extension, when it is said that the Archbishop of Canterbury is head of the Church of England or the Anglican Communion, what is being claimed is that the Archbishop of Canterbury has a similar governing authority over these bodies. The problem with this claim is that it is untrue for three reasons.

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Martin Davie–'The…problem with this statement is that the idea that the Church of England does not have a ‘straightforward statement of doctrine’ is simply untrue. The Church of England does have a straightforward statement of its doctrine, and this is found in the Thirty Nine… pic.twitter.com/8jtUCwrQDb

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) November 21, 2024

Mullally has been closely involved with the so-called “Prayers of Love and Faith”, proposed marriage-like prayers for same-sex couples. When PLF was approved she described it as “a moment of hope” for the church, leaving little doubt as to her own opinion. It is this position, rather than anything about the ordination of women, that has caused the most consternation from conservatives. GAFCON and GFSA, two large alliances in the worldwide Anglican Communion, both speak of it as a key driver for continued suspension of ordinary relations with Lambeth.

Once again the history of the church is instructive; any kind of acceptance of same-sex unions was unknown to Christianity before about the last hundred years, and has only found widespread traction in about the last thirty. (Of course, popes, televangelists and many others have had their moral failings, but these were always recognised as failings and a subject of scandal when revealed.) And once again this is in part because of extremely plain statements in Scripture. Such behaviour is an “abomination”; those who practice these things “will not inherit the kingdom of God”. There is a famous story about Sodom and Gomorrah with which you may be dimly aware. Scripture is at pains to point out that this sin, like all others, will be forgiven for anyone who repents; but it is a sin, and forgiveness does require repentance. (Of course, for all the creative reinterpretations that have flourished here as well, the real reason for the church’s shift is evident to anyone with half a brain: the culture moved, and the church wanted to move with it.)

Here there is an important difference from the issue of women’s ordination. While Scripture is clear on that topic, it is silent on its precise seriousness; most conservatives would not suggest that disobedience around women’s ordination is necessarily the death of faith. But the matter is very different with sexual immorality (of which same-sex unions are of course only one example); here God repeatedly warns us that unrepentant disobedience means judgement. To our culture, obsessed with sex and thereby cheapening it, this seems a strange overreaction. In reality, however, God could hardly do otherwise. Sex is deeply significant, the closest you can get to another human being and therefore an act with enormous power. Any parent can testify to its life-giving strength; any victim of sexual abuse, to its destructive force. God takes it seriously because it is serious.

Read it all.

Why Christians have an issue with Sarah Mullally — by @petermileach https://t.co/S0KODGQZhf

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) October 11, 2025