by Catherine Pepinster, Telegraph
The first female Archbishop of Canterbury is racing against time to avert an Anglican civil war
Andrew Atherstone has become the go-to biographer of Archbishops of Canterbury. He has, for example, written not one, but two accounts of Justin Welby. That said, one bore the sub-heading “Risktaker and Reconciler”; it’s true that Welby took risks – not least in striving to bring the Church of England to some form of agreement over same-sex relationships – but “reconciler”? That isn’t the epitaph anyone would use now, after the Church was torn apart, and Welby’s tenure ended, by the issue of child sexual abuse.
With Sarah Mullally, recently enthroned, Atherstone is adopting a more cautious approach. Had he chosen something more enticing than Archbishop Sarah Mullally: A Biography, it would probably have involved the word “trailblazer”, given that this is how he introduces her to us. Fine, the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury is also the first woman in the role.
Yet, as Atherstone shows, she has always demonstrated an aversion to risk – and reconciliation between the Church’s warring evangelical, Catholic traditionalist and liberal-progressive factions may prove impossible. Moreover, she’ll turn 64 on the day after her installation, and all clergy must retire at 70 – so she has just six years to make her mark.
That said, Mullally is a woman of impressive achievements and gifts. She has risen to the top of not one, but two major British organisations: before climbing through the Anglican ecclesiastical ranks, she was chief nursing officer of the NHS. After being ordained in 2002, she became one of the first female bishops in the Church of England, appointed in 2015, and then Bishop of London in 2018.
Read also: What is the story of Sarah Mullally? by Ian Paul, Psephizo