06 Oct 2025
Rev Peter Crumpler, associate minister at St Paul’s Church, Fleetville, St Albans, explains why the appointment of a new, female archbishop is a positive move by the Church of England.
Judging by my social media and news feed, not everyone is enthusiastic about the choice of Sarah Mullally, as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Or maybe even cares. But personally, I’m more optimistic.
Critics have pointed out that the first female archbishop will not be welcomed by those churches – in this country and overseas – who cannot accept women as priests, let alone bishops or archbishops.
Others have drawn attention to safeguarding problems in her current Diocese of London and these concerns have to be taken seriously. Some have questioned her age, at 63, and that she will have to retire in just seven years. Others disagree strongly with her on a range of social issues.
I’m choosing to be hopeful for at least five reasons.
Firstly, Sarah Mullally spent more than 35 years working in the NHS and has a ‘real world’ perspective on our society. Nurses often see people at their lowest point and are trained to bring compassion and care. She understands the pressures faced by frontline health workers.
Secondly, she rose to the top of her profession, becoming the youngest-ever chief nursing officer for England. In that role, she had to negotiate the corridors of power in Whitehall and Westminster, and grew used to working with, and challenging politicians and civil servants.
Thirdly, she volunteered as a priest in a church for several years, combining an unpaid role with her paid profession. Since most of the workforce of the CofE is unpaid, this gives her a particular empathy with most of the Church.
Fourthly, Mullally has worked in a range of places: rural, urban, in a cathedral, in a local parish church, and as a bishop in Devon and London. She has experience of all kinds of people and places.
Fifthly, she’s a woman taking up a pioneering role at the head of a major British institution. In my experience, it’s still true that women have to be much better than male candidates to be chosen for these key roles. She has spoken of the discrimination against women that sadly still exists within the CofE and has lived with the reality of having consistently to perform at a high level.
In many ways, it doesn’t matter that much to local Church of England churches who the Archbishop of Canterbury is. Our role is simply to get on with the job of sharing God’s love – in action and in words – in our community.
We seek to serve local people with activities ranging from food banks to debt counselling, from old people’s clubs to toddler groups, from youth clubs to litter picks.
All in addition to our key role of seeking to follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, providing regular worship services, and holding funerals, weddings and Christenings for the people in our parishes.
Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop’s London home, may be just 26 miles from St Albans, but many of its preoccupations can seem a long way from the issues facing St Paul’s and other churches in our city.
There’s a prayer in the old Book of Common Prayer that asks that we may be “godly and quietly governed”.
That sums up my expectations for the new archbishop: that the emphasis of all that she does may be directed to supporting the grassroots of the Church of England and
our mission in communities across the country.
I pray that, under Sarah Mullally’s oversight, churches will flourish quietly in St Albans and in cities, town and villages across England and beyond. Maybe, that will be the most important sign of her success.
