Why did you choose Sarah Mullally, the first woman bishop to head the Church of England?

She is not officially the “head” of the Church of England, this role being assigned to the monarch of the United Kingdom. But Bishop Sarah Mullally has been the highest religious leader in the Anglican Church since October 3, 2025.

A commission made up of sixteen members, the majority from the clergy, proposed his appointment to the Prime Minister and then to the sovereign. And they chose a woman for the first time since the founding of the Anglican Church in 1531.

Around the world, the media are spreading the news with enthusiasm. In the midst of a feminist wave, is this choice aimed at dusting off the image of an aging institution? In October 2024, the British newspaper The Guardian recalled that attendance at its places of worship had fallen by 20% since 2020.

“It is difficult to say with certainty but there is, in any case, a desire in the Church of England to feminize the hierarchy of the clergy,” observes Rémy Bethmont, professor of British history and civilization at the University of Paris VIII.

A first bishop in 2015

Although this Church authorized the ordination of women in 1992, they had to wait a certain time before accessing the office of bishop. The first, the Reverend Libby Lane, was appointed in 2015. Since then, church representatives have been working to quickly appoint women to the leadership of dioceses to catch up. Within the Anglican Communion – which brings together Anglican churches around the world – this feminization is not unanimous.

Some English faithful and a large part of the clergy and laity of southern countries (West Africa, Chile, etc.) are more conservative and think that this reform does not respect biblical tradition. Despite this anger, the British primates chose to maintain their liberal-leaning orientation. Today, 40 of England’s 108 bishops are women and Sarah Mullally will now preside over their assemblies.

Several specialists from the Anglican world also argue that she was chosen due to a lack of credible male candidates. In a column in the newspaper La Croix, journalist and historian Lucetta Scaraffia asserts that this appointment “was in some way made necessary by the accusations of sexual abuse – committed or covered up – involving all the main Anglican male representatives.”

In recent years, numerous cases of sexual abuse have overwhelmed the Anglican Church as several investigations revealed that primates had kept abusive priests in office. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was himself implicated for not having reported facts to the police during a previous mandate. He therefore had to resign from the seat of the Anglican Church in November 2024 and the seat remained vacant until the choice of Sarah Mullally in the fall of 2025.

“In a progressive fringe, we find clergy and laity alike who believe that diversity in the episcopate can make it possible to better manage cases of abuse,” continues Rémy Bethmont. For them, an exclusively male hierarchy can encourage a set of toxic behaviors. But Sarah Mullally is not exempt from all reproach and she admitted to having made errors in the management of sensitive files.

In 2020, this trained nurse was Bishop of London when priest Alan Griffin committed suicide. This former member of the diocese had been the target of an internal investigation for sexual abuse of minors but the accusations turned out to be unfounded. Is Sarah Mullally, who must be formally elected to the seat of Canterbury in January 2026, therefore at risk of seeing this affair darken her mandate? For the moment, the vast majority of the press is not mentioning it, quite happy to celebrate the first woman at the head of the Church of England.