New Archbishop of Canterbury

I would be hesitant to say anything until there is a response. People who make complaints aren't always in the right. It does sound bad though whether it was an intentional subverting, or being stupid about procedure.

That’s awful 😡😢😢

I saw this as a very short bottom of the page newspaper story, and thought if this was a plot for a movie people would say surely this wouldn't happen in real life. But it does.

Thanks for longer news report.

This is a bit of a blow.

https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2025/12/archbishop-of-canterbury-elect-accused-of-safeguarding-breach
The archbishop of Canterbury elect, Sarah Mullally (pictured), has been accused of contravening the Clergy Discipline Measure code of practice during her time as bishop of London.One member of clergy has now called for an independent investigation to be launched.According to Premier Christian News, 'Survivor N' first reported allegations of abuse against a priest in the diocese of London over a decade ago.Premier Christian News has now "seen evidence" that Mullally "contravened the Clergy Discipline Measure [CDM] code of practice" by "sending a confidential email about the allegations directly to the priest concerned, outside of the CDM process".According to the Church of England, CDM "provides a procedure for handling such allegations of serious misconduct".Mullally allegedly told Survivor N his claims were "unsubstantiated". Survivor N says he was then subjected to a "systematic campaign of harassment and retribution".The decision of the diocese and Mullally not to investigate Survivor N's claim left him "in such a severe mental health crisis that he attempted to take his own life twice".A former child protection lawyer described the diocese's treatment of Survivor N as "the worst example of post-abuse victimisation of a CDM complainant we have ever seen".

It's interesting that Google has very many hits of Mullay talking about and associated with LGBTQI+ inclusion, but seemingly none that address the current contentious issues of single-sex services and spaces and trans children.

👀 One is tempted to think that's not an accident, though the interpretation of that fact isn't clear.

I actually had a very minor connection with Her Grace (? too late to look up the etiquette) during her nursing career. She was great. Feels like quite something. If this means eventual disestablishment, what a moment.

her teachings on marriage and sexuality are not what the bible says

Why ate people so fixated on these particular topics but are more than happy to deviate from bible teaching on other matters eg tithing 10% of your income to the church?

I find it a bit weird that sex is the hill people chose to die on, as it were.

I don't think the impending schism over same sex marriage etc can be avoided. The church can only ostrich for so long.

Wales got there first. 😁Our new Archbishop (elected at the end of July) is not only a woman but a lesbian in a civil partnership.

Well as someone who has not real interest in the Anglican church (or any other religion) cant help but feel we are reaping what we sowed.

Not only imposition of christianity on parts of Africa under colonialism, but also the exporting of strands of extreme christianity to America which has now developed into some sort of church militant which it is feeding back to the UK.

I was just speaking to someone who is an active member of the church, and she is concerned that the appointment will be divisive and they will lose African support. The church in the UK is shrinking massively - the congregation at my friend's church is tiny, and like many others the church is being merged with others in the area - so I suppose I can see where she is coming from.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) has expressed “sorrow” at the announcement that Dame Sarah Mullally will become the next Archbishop of Canterbury, warning that her appointment “abandons global Anglicans” and will “further divide an already split Communion".

In a statement signed by its chairman, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, Gafcon said the Archbishop of Canterbury can “no longer function as a credible leader of Anglicans, let alone a focus of unity", citing its 2023 Kigali Commitment in which it declared it would “no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as an Instrument of Communion".

The group raised concerns both about Dame Sarah's support for blessings of same-sex relationships and about her appointment as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, saying “the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy".

https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/gafcon-rejects-new-archbishop-of-canterbury

I know! It's incredible how slow the Labour Party has been to achieve this. There have been four female leaders of the Conservative Party! Are Labour the only big UK party that's never had a woman in charge? Even the DUP managed it!

The Church of England and Church in Wales have both beaten the Labour Party to having a woman at the top.

Depressing that it's taken till 2025 for a woman to rise to the top of one of the most influential organisations in the UK. The first Moderator of the Church of Scotland was in office 2004/5.

Would I be right in assuming it will be a cold day in hell (as it were) before women are even allowed to be ordained as priests in the Catholic church, never mind Pope?

I used to be very CofE, and am now just a vaguely sympathetic interested atheist. But this is a brave appointment internationally - it’s going to have massive repercussions.

I, like millions of others, wasn't part of the selection process.

If she welcomes people in, helps clear up old messes, moves forwards then great.

Really not bothered about whether she is male/female etc.

I wonder how many of the grumblers actually attend. Or would if she was this or that etc.

A split in the global Anglican communion is inevitable anyway. I’d happily let the homophobes breakaway- if her appointment hastens it, then Godspeed.

She is somebody who rose to the very top of one profession, nursing and then started at the bottom of another, the church. She’s now risen to the top of that. Extraordinary woman.

I agree that it will hasten the inevitable split in the global Anglican communion. My own view is that this is much better than accepting intolerance and hatred in the church as the price of compromise, but I think it's better clear from your post that our views on gay people in the church, marriage and Biblical literalism vs. following the spirit of the example of Christ are quite different.

I agree GI has been accepted by senior leadership. But I think this is because it’s seemed like an easy gift to liberals in the face of the continuing stand-off over same sex marriage. It’s not that I think that senior bishops are transactivists, but that they bracketed it off as ‘let’s not fight that battle when we’ve got so much else our hands.’ As in so many other places, it’s felt like an easy, no cost win. As we know that is absolutely not true, and in my view there is a real battle to fight in CofE. But the small ray of light is that CofE is much less captured than some other denominations - Methodists and United Reformed Church for instance.

You'd hope a former midwife who has risen to the top of a formerly male-dominated organisation would have a very good grasp of the importance of sex, but we've been disappointed before.

She sounds like a very impressive woman. This is from the BBC:

Dame Sarah Mullally, 63, has become the first woman to be named Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England's almost 500-year history.
But before she became a priest in 2006, she had a successful career as a nurse.
Married with two children, she spent over 35 years in the NHS - and became the youngest-ever chief nursing officer for England in 1999.
Although she was volunteering in the Church at the time, it was just a few years later that she decided to become a priest and was quickly tasked with helping make reforms in the way the institution dealt with abuse.
She became canon treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral in 2012, before becoming Bishop of Crediton in the diocese of Exeter in 2015.
As Bishop of London she was seen as someone who used her experience as an NHS administrator to help modernise the diocese.
She said at the time of that appointment: "I am often asked what it has been like to have had two careers, first in the NHS and now in the Church.
"I prefer to think that I have always had one vocation: to follow Jesus Christ".
One of the areas she has been most outspoken about it is assisted dying - she is a vociferous opponent, as was her predecessor.
And she described the decision to finally allow priests to bless same-sex couples in 2023 as "a moment of hope for the Church".

[Interesting post above about the divisions in the Anglican Communion. I have no skin in this game at all, so simply observe from a distance. I am an atheist and in the distant past I was brought up in the Church of Scotland (which is Presbyterian) and then the Presbyterian Church of England and Wales, which merged with the Congregationalists to form the United Reformed Church. Non-conformist all the way! My parents regarded the bells and smells and bishops side of Christianity with great suspicion. ]

The C of E produced some appalling safeguarding breaching “trans” guidelines for their numerous schools. They were so dire that the ‘be kind’ brigade did do a rewrite I believe. But the fact that they were written for schools in the face of the tsunami of safeguarding scandals in the C of E says a lot about who holds the power in the institution and why so many predators have been unchallenged.
Gender Identity has a massive hold over senior clerics in the church. Will she in any way challenge this?

I have dealt with her in her role as Bishop of London. A very impressive woman. I’m pleased she’s got the job.

What?