A woman becomes head of the Anglican Church for the first time

LondonEleven years after the Church of England authorized the ordination of female bishops, for the first time one of them will be its head. Sarah Mullally, 63, until now head of the Archdiocese of London, was appointed this Friday as Archbishop of Canterbury. Starting in January, when she takes office, she will assume the highest pastoral authority of the denomination. In his first statements after being appointed, the archbishop stated that he faces the new ministry "with a spirit of service to God and others," a commitment that, he recalled, has accompanied him since embracing the faith as a teenager. "I know it is an enormous responsibility, but I do so with peace and confidence that God will sustain me, as He always has," he added.

Her appointment comes after the third and final meeting of the Crown Nominations Commission, held this morning. The 17-person group, led by Lord Evans, former director of the MI5 spy agency, had to reach a two-thirds majority agreement on who should be the next archbishop. The possibility of a woman becoming the next archbishop was gaining increasing traction.

Seeking to allay potential reservations that the appointment of a woman as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church might raise in some quarters of the faithful, Mullally also said: "I intend to be a pastor who enables everyone's ministry and vocation to flourish," whatever that may be. And she thanked "all the men and women, lay and ordained deacons, priests and bishops who have paved the way up to this point, and all the women who have come before me."

The pastoral leadership of the Anglican Church had been vacant for almost a year, following the resignation last November of Justin Welby, aged 68, due to the lack of careful management, due to dereliction of duties, in the largest child abuse scandal that has never stained the institution. Thousands of priests, and also the majority of the bishops who make up the general synod, called for the man's resignation. who buried Elizabeth IIand?crowned Charles III.

The Church of England approved the ordination of women as priests in 1992, and the first women were ordained in 1994, breaking centuries of exclusively male tradition. The female presence has been growing steadily in the Anglican clergy. Currently, nearly a third of active priests and deacons are women, and among those newly ordained, the percentage reaches 50%.%The episcopate is still predominantly male, but there are now more than 20 female bishops in the 42 dioceses. This change reflects a slow but irreversible process of feminization in the Church.

Abuse, a burden on the institution

As expected, in her first public address, she did not avoid the crisis of the abuse scandals: "Our history of failures in the protection of minors and vulnerable people has left a legacy of deep pain and mistrust. We must let the light shine on our actions, whatever our role," she said. This self-criticism has not been enough to convince abuse victims. Through the media, several survivors have described the appointment as "disastrous" and "disappointing."

In fact, these same critics accuse Mullally of being "complicit" in multiple protection failures when he was Bishop of London and denounce that the Church needed someone "outside the scandal" and not "more of the same." Victims' associations warn that the new spiritual leader has not yet demonstrated that she understands the magnitude of the problem or that she prioritizes caring for survivors over institutional reputation.

Mullally's career is atypical in the clerical world. Before being ordained a priest in 2002, she had worked as an oncology nurse and, at just 37 years old, rose to become England's chief nursing officer, the highest position in this field. She received the title of baroness for her services to public health. In 2015, she was consecrated a bishop and, three years later, assumed responsibility for London, the second largest diocese in the country.

Her challenge is immense. In addition to dealing with the aftermath of the abuse scandal, she will have to deal with issues that deeply divide the Anglican community: same-sex marriage, the decline in the number of faithful, and the rise of nationalist Christianity on the political right. the euthanasia bill, which is being debated in the House of Lords, But in practice, she faces the final parliamentary process before being sanctioned by the king, and about which Sarah Mullally has openly spoken out against her. She will also have to maintain a balance between the African churches, which are conservative and opposed to homosexuality, and the liberal sectors of the West. However, in theory, she is the leader of a single community of faithful made up of 85 million people worldwide.

The legal appointment ceremony will take place next January at Canterbury Cathedral and will be followed by an enthronement service attended by the royal family. It will then be that Sarah Mullally officially becomes the first woman to head the Church of England, although Charles III, as King of England, is the supreme leader.