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Archbishop of Canterbury’s installation a joyous day for women in ministry, leadership

March 25, 2026

[Episcopal News Service – Canterbury, England] Women bishops from across the Anglican Communion gathered at St. Peter’s Anglican Church here for Morning Prayer just hours before the historic March 25 installation of Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the start of a joyous day for women in ministry and church leadership. “There were maybe 25 of us in the room, women from Africa, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, all over England,” Archbishop Linda Nicholls, former Anglican Church of Canada primate, told Episcopal News Service. “The focus was on praying for Sarah in her role with the communion, in her role with England, as a wife, a mother … there was just a sense of the communion coming together, such joy that this is happening and people rejoicing with her on this day.” That afternoon, over 2,000 people gathered at Canterbury Cathedral and thousands more joined online for a service that celebrated the diversity of the Church of England, the nation and the Anglican Communion. Mullally was confirmed as the archbishop of Canterbury in January, and this service marked the start of her public ministry in that role. Mullally’s installation, as the first woman to hold the office, was 1,400 years in the making. Praying together with Mullally and the other women bishops was “powerful and hopeful,” Archbishop of Mexico Alba Sally Sue Hernández García, who on March 21 became the sixth woman to be elected primate in the Anglican Communion, told ENS. Hernández, who in 2022 was the first female bishop elected to serve the Anglican Church of Mexico in the Mexico City-based Diocese of Mexico, read the Gospel, Luke 1:26-38, during the installation service. Women’s voices were included throughout the traditional Anglican service, celebrating centuries of female scholars, musicians and writers. The choral music ranged from the Renaissance to contemporary, including the anthem “All Shall Be Well,”  music set to texts by Mother Julian of Norwich by British composer Joanna Marsh. It was also the first time that the Girls Cathedral Choir, formed in 2014, performed at an archbishop of Canterbury’s installation. “It’s an incredible day for the church, both the Anglican Communion, but also the Christian community,” Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows told ENS. “To have a woman taking this historic seat in this historic time is extraordinary.” She added she was proud to represent The Episcopal Church as vice president of the House of Bishops. “It was beautiful to be a witness to all of it –  the fanfare, the pageantry, the worship, the prayerful ways in which we welcomed her to her cathedral and to her see and to the historic seat as the successor to Augustine.” The service coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, which commemorates the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and bear a son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As Mullally said in advance of the service, it was meant to celebrate the church, the Anglican Communion and God. Former Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori became the first woman primate to serve the Anglican Communion after her election and confirmation in 2006. “Today, the world is seeing the remarkable journey of a former nurse, diocesan treasurer and priest,” Jefferts Schori told ENS in a written statement. “Her enthronement brings a new chapter as Archbishop Mullally is installed. She will be lauded by many — and derided by others, for the world still lives with a crushing effect for most women in this world. We are already seeing efforts to dilute the scope of the archbishop’s authority across the Anglican Communion.” “Nevertheless, the communion has now produced six women primates, most recently in Mexico, four days ago. The road is long and twisting, seeking the road to Jerusalem, in joy as well as agony.” In 2019, 13 years after The Episcopal Church’s historic election of Jefferts Schori, the Anglican Church of Canada elected Nicholls, who served as primate until her retirement in 2024. Archbishop Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto has been primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil since 2022. Archbishop Cherry Vann became primate of the Church in Wales in 2025. Mullally is primate of all England and bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Canterbury. The Most Rev. Kay Goldsworthy, archbishop of the Diocese of Perth in the Anglican Church of Australia, described the moment as one of “unfettered joy in terms of women’s ministry.” As Jefferts Schori, with her 2006 election, opened doors for ordained women serving in places that previously had been closed to them, installing a woman as archbishop of Canterbury will have a further effect, Goldsworthy told ENS. “She will bring a different and fresh perspective to what it means to hold and fill that role, to embody what that looks like for those of us who are deeply committed to the Anglican Communion and deeply committed to the journeying that we make together and the life of Christ’s love that we share and show,” Goldsworthy said. For perspective, Nicholls noted that the Anglican Communion is 175 years old, having emerged in the 19th century with independent Anglican churches needing to communicate with the Church of England, and that the archbishop of Canterbury has served as a symbol of unity despite not having any judicial authority outside the Church of England. The Church of England first began ordaining women as priests in 1994 and as bishops in 2015, whereas some other parts of the communion have had women clergy and bishops for decades. Today in The Episcopal Church, which first ordained women to the priesthood in 1974, there are some 55 women in the House of Bishops. An estimated 130 women are bishops across the Anglican Communion, although some provinces still do not allow women’s ordination. A woman as archbishop of Canterbury “is more than anything we’d hoped for,” the Most Rev. Vicentia Kgabe, bishop of the Diocese of Pretoria in South Africa, told ENS. “We thought, yes, we […]