Other responses to the appointment of the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury

Posted on October 4, 2025 
Filed under Anglican Communion, Church of England

From Church Society:

We note the election of Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury. We offer our congratulations and prayers for her as she prepares to take up this ministry, and we hope to be able to meet with her in due course to discuss the urgent need for reformation and renewal of the Church of England in biblical faith.

While the milestone election of a female archbishop creates additional problems of disunity in the Church in England and around the world, we note the positive comments of the Bishop of Ebbsfleet about this here.

But we need a change of direction, not just of sex. More concerning is the appointment (for the third time in a row to this position) of someone who does not seem to actually hold to the doctrine of the Church of England on marriage and sexual ethics but wants it to change. We pray that at a time when there is serious fracture and distrust on this subject, as there is on serious safeguarding issues as well, that God would give bishop Sarah the wisdom she will need to help restore confidence and credibility to the church.

From The Church of England Evangelical Council:

The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) joins Anglicans across the world in praying for Bishop Sarah Mullally on the announcement that she is to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bishop Sarah will take up her role as the next Archbishop of Canterbury at a difficult time for the Church of England, set against a backdrop of global conflict and instability.

At home, the Church of England faces challenges because of declining attendance, financial pressures and their impact on sustaining parochial ministry. This is in the context of the significant divisions created by the Living in Love and Faith process. More broadly, across the Anglican Communion, in recent years there has been a significant loss of confidence in the role of the Archbishop and a cry for leadership consonant with our Anglican doctrinal heritage.

These challenges exist within a wider context of political fragility—both in the UK and abroad—with contentious debates domestically, including the proposed assisted dying legislation, immigration, and ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East.

We therefore pray that God will enable Bishop Sarah to hold to the apostolic faith and call the Church of England to recommit to the historic doctrines and formularies entrusted to it. We pray that this might be a moment where the current drift away from a biblical and Anglican understanding of marriage and sexual ethics is either halted or a way is found to secure biblical convictions in the Church of England for the future. Above all, our hope is that she will lead the Church of England in presenting the unchanging good news of the gospel afresh to our needy world.

In 2 Timothy 1:14, Paul implores Timothy to ‘guard the good deposit’. We pray that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Bishop Sarah will be enabled to do the same.

From Anglican Futures:

The wrong Archbishop for this cultural moment? – Their conclusion:

The crowning achievement for most Archbishops of Canterbury is the highlight of hosting a “Lambeth Conference” of all the Communion’s bishops. One is due in 2032, the year before the archbishop is due to retire – but whether there will be a Communion to gather is doubtful.

Bishop Mullally may, as many say, be “really kind”. She may, as she says, “…intend to be a shepherd who enables everyone’s ministry and vocation to flourish, whatever our tradition…”, but the thing about shepherds is they have to know both where the good pasture is and where the wolves are.

Given that in less than two hours today Bishop Mullally repeated her failings at home and further alienated the Communion abroad, it is hard to imagine a worse start for the new incumbent of the chair of St Augustine, or a worse morning for the Church of England. There might be “Nothing like a Dame”, but she has just over six years from January to put things right.

– Do read the whole article.

And at The Critic:

The lanyard class Archbishop – by George Owers, writing about the “quiet revival” happening in many places –

“If I were to try to imagine a candidate for the new Archbishop of Canterbury who is the furthest away from this, the worst and least suitable replacement for Welby possible, I would probably pick someone along the following lines. They’d be a former state bureaucrat who made an entire career out of the sort of bland HR department-inspired managerialism that is destroying the church, probably a senior civil servant in (say) the NHS. They’d be on record as having every tick-box lazy progressive political and theological opinion imaginable. They would, of course, have lived and worked in London for most of their life and be a thoroughgoing metropolitan. …”

Photo via The Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.