29. Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, Servant-Leader
by Graham Kings
Date added: 13/03/2026
My poem on the new Pope, Robert Prevost: American Pope, concludes with the words:
Many years unfold before this
unhurried, unassuming, unobtrusive
follower of Christ.
The same three adjectives may also suit the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally. Like Pope Leo, she was somewhat of a surprise appointment, but very soon the wisdom of the choice became obvious.
I first knew her, and her husband Eamonn, when she was Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, from 2012-15, while I was serving as Bishop of Sherborne in the diocese. She was remarkable for her patient, reflective, witness to Christ and her diligent, collaborative, work behind the scenes for the nourishment and development of God’s Church.
One memorable illustration of her character is a project she oversaw, with aplomb – the installation of new toilet facilities in the medieval Cathedral. No small task and typical of her humility.
Archbishop Sarah was born in Woking in 1962, and was educated at Winston Churchill Comprehensive School, Woking Sixth Form College, and South Bank Polytechnic College (BSc, 1982, and MSc, 1994).
She became a Christian at the age of 16 and attended the conservative Evangelical church of St Stephen, South Lambeth. Dr Simon Stocks, who now teaches at St Augustine’s College of Theology, London, related to me recently how much she was loved at that church. When later the PCC had to decide whether to allow a future appointment of a woman priest, he witnessed one conservative member say, ‘Can we pass a resolution that we can’t have a woman priest, unless it is Sarah?’
She trained as a nurse, specialising in cancer wards, and rose to be the youngest Chief Nursing Officer for England, 1999-2004. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2005, for services to nursing and midwifery.
During that period, she trained for the ordained ministry at the South-East Institute for Theological Education in Southwark, gaining a Diploma in Theology, (University of Kent). She was ordained as a non-stipendary deacon in 2001, and priest in 2002, to serve as a curate at St Saviour’s Church, Battersea Fields, in the Diocese of Southwark. In 2004 she began full time stipendary ministry and in 2006 she gained a Masters in Pastoral Theology at the Roman Catholic Heythrop College, University of London.
From 2006 to 2012 she was Team Rector in the Sutton Team Ministry, serving at St Nicholas Church, Sutton, in the Diocese of Southwark, and from there she moved to be Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, 2012-15.
In 2015, she was consecrated Bishop, the fourth female bishop in the Church of England, at Canterbury Cathedral to serve as Bishop of Crediton, in the Diocese of Exeter.
In 2018, she was installed at St Paul’s Cathedral as the 133rd Bishop of London, and joined the House of Lords.
Now Sarah is the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman called to that role. On 25 March 2026 – appropriately, Lady Day, and the day before her 64th birthday – she will be installed at Canterbury Cathedral, before many ecumenical guests, and TV cameras, from all around the world.
Throughout her ministry, she has been involved profoundly and positively in ecumenism. On 26 February, in Lambeth Palace Chapel, she commissioned the new National Adviser for Ecumenical Relationships to the Church of England, Matthias Grebe, in the presence of representatives of churches in England.
If we look back at the last three Popes and Archbishops of Canterbury, perhaps we may trace a pattern of personalities: Benedict and Rowan were renowned theologians; Francis and Justin were mission activists; and now Leo and Sarah are quiet servant-leaders.
God has called Sarah, an expert in loving care, to take care of the Church of England at a crucial time for the next six years, and to be a midwife, bringing to birth new possibilities and relationships. Let us continue to pray for her and her family.
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First published on the Churches Together in England website, 10 Mar 2026 here.
