The next Archbishop of Canterbury is to be the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London since 2018, Downing Street announced on Friday. She is to be the first woman to hold the post.
The nomination of the next Primate of All England was agreed by at least a two-thirds majority of the 17 voting members of the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), who held their final meeting last week. A shortlist had been agreed at their previous meeting in August (News, 8 August).
Bishop Mullally, who is 63, succeeds the Rt Revd Justin Welby, who resigned in November after the publication of the Makin report on the Church’s handling of the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth (News, 15 November 2024). The CNC convened six months later, at the end of May.
Before ordination, Bishop Mullally trained and worked as a nurse in London, becoming a senior civil servant in the Department of Health. She was the youngest ever Chief Nursing Officer, holding that appointment from 1999 to 2004. She was ordained in 2001, and served as a self-supporting minister until 2006 in Battersea, south London.
BREAKING: The next Archbishop of Canterbury is to be the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London since 2018, Downing Street announced on Friday. She is to be the first woman to hold the post#archbishopofcanterbury #Archbishop106 #nextABChttps://t.co/J1WLKj1rQz
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 3, 2025