00:00Let us greet our newly installed Archbishop.
00:04What you're seeing here is history being made.
00:07The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always.
00:15A 63-year-old former nurse, Sarah Mullally, became the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury,
00:21the first woman to hold this position in the more than 1,400-year history of the Church of England.
00:30This is no ordinary role. Think of her as the Pope of the Anglicans.
00:34She is the spiritual head of the Church of England, one of the world's largest Christian bodies,
00:39and holds a seat in the UK's House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual.
00:43And Mullally's journey is anything but ordinary.
00:48Born on 26 March 1962 in Woking, Surrey, she began her career as a nurse in South London.
00:54She rose the ranks and became one of England's leading nurses, earning a damehood for her work.
00:59When she moved to the Church, she was ordained as a priest in 2002 and later became a bishop.
01:04In 2018, she made history as the first woman to serve as the Bishop of London.
01:08I was the first woman to be the Bishop of London, so I've had a bit of experience.
01:13On March 25, 2026, Mullally knocked on the cathedral doors,
01:17a centuries-old ritual marking her formal entry as Archbishop.
01:21She was enthroned in the presence of Prince William and Kate at Canterbury Cathedral.
01:25For centuries, this office was held only by men.
01:28The Church of England allowed women to become priests only in 1994 and bishops in 2014.
01:34Mullally's appointment now marks a historic break from that long-standing tradition.
01:38The real importance, I think, is, in a sense, the role model I can offer.
01:45It does enable them to think, actually, that may be something I could do.
Comments