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Hurt by recent events, Church of England We have just entered a new era. Begum Sarah Mullallyappointment as First female Archbishop of Canterbury Is important. But Mullaly faces a big challenge to heal the wounds inflicted on his church. Restoring confidence in the church’s senior leadership and preventing the church from fracturing over issues of sexuality and gender will be high on his agenda.
Mulli’s This appointment comes immediately after a period of crisis in the church. Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin WelbyHe was forced to resign after revelations about how he and other senior church leaders handled historical cases of child abuse.
Mullally explained that his first task would be to restore confidence in the Church’s senior management and safeguarding processes: “As Archbishop, my commitment will be to ensure that we continue to listen to survivors, care for the vulnerable and promote a culture of safety and wellbeing for all.”
As the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, Mullally faces a unique set of challenges. Mullally, a former chief nursing officer for England, was one of the first women to become a senior bishop in a diocese when she was made Bishop of London in 2018. Church of England While women priests and bishops have been welcomed, some – particularly on the traditionalist evangelical and Catholic wings of the church – continue to oppose the ordination of women.
Mulli’s role in global guidance English The family is also complicated by the fact that many of its member churches do not accept female bishops and priests. Senior Anglican leaders in Africa and Asia have openly criticized her appointment, both because she is a woman and because of her views on gay marriage.
Mullaly will have to try to build bridges with those who oppose women priests and bishops – and who deny them the right to hold the office of archbishop – while also assuring them that the Church can still provide suitable provisions for them.
leadership culture
Along with restoring confidence in the church’s security procedures, Mullally must also heal divisions within the church hierarchy over leadership culture. In the weeks before Welby’s resignation, both he and the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, were accused of using “coercive language” by the Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley.
According to Hartley, both archbishops showed “a complete lack of awareness of how power dynamics operate in the life of the Church”. Mullaly is now in a position to encourage reconciliation within the church hierarchy and lead it in a way that promotes mutual respect and accountability.
About the author
William Crozier is Duns Scotus Assistant Professor of Franciscan Studies at Durham University.
This article is republished from Conversation Under Creative Commons license. read the original article,
Mullally should encourage more people to enter the priesthood, especially those under 40. The key here will be to attract new vocations not only to the parish system, but also to “non-stipendiary” forms of ministry – priests who hold down regular secular jobs while helping out in local churches. Mullally may have a unique advantage in this regard, given that she was a non-studied priest before resigning from the post of Chief Nursing Officer.
Although overall church attendance has declined in recent decades, the trend has reversed slightly in the last few years. In 2024, about 582,000 people regularly attended Sunday services, up from 574,000 in 2023. Mullally’s task will be to help foster this development, while finding new ways of communicating in a fundamentally changing society.
gay marriage
Currently, the Church of England does not perform gay marriages, nor does it allow its clergy to perform them. However, in 2017, it launched Living in Love and Faith – a project to “listen, learn and respond to changing views” on gender, marriage, relationships and sexual identity.
In light of this, the House of Bishops – one of the church’s main systems of government – voted in 2023 to allow clergy to pray blessings for same-sex couples. Mullally was one of the bishops who voted for the move.
Many in the church, including several bishops, are pushing for the church to move forward and conduct gay marriages.
A survey of clergy conducted by The Times in 2023 revealed that 49.2% of Church of England clergy would be willing to conduct same-sex marriages. However, others oppose any change to current doctrine, arguing that such a move would contradict both the Bible and tradition.
As archbishop, how Mullally steers the church on this issue will be one of the defining features of his tenure. But it cannot change church doctrine itself. Only the General Synod – the main governing body of the Church – has the power to do so.
An added degree of complexity is that, as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Mullally is also the spiritual leader of the 85 million strong global Anglican community.
Present in 165 countries, the Anglican Communion consists of 42 member churches. Some of these, including the Scottish and Canadian Episcopal Churches, already allow same-sex marriage. However, others oppose this. Archbishop of Rwanda Laurent Mbanda said Mullaly “has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality”.
Should the Church of England – as the “mother church” of the Anglican Communion – move towards same-sex marriage during Mullally’s tenure, it is possible that the already deeply divided Anglican Communion could irreversibly fracture.