The first female Archbishop in history arrives in Canterbury
Sara Mullally, current Bishop of London, rises to the highest rung of the Church of England. Controversy over timing and methods after the scandal of predecessor Welby
After half a millennium since the schism of King Henry VIII, who separated from the Church of Rome, another earthquake shakes the Christian world: the Anglican Church has appointed the first female archbishop in its secular history (which began in 1535): her name is Sarah Mullally.
Since the time of the Tudor monarch, the English church has been under the control of the monarch, but the archbishop of Canterbury, a town in Kent with the country's main cathedral, is the de facto spiritual leader, theequivalent of the Pope for Catholics. It has taken almost a year to choose the new British 'pontiff': the timing and manner have raised various controversies.
Heir of Saint Augustine
On the throne that once belonged to the Roman St. Augustine, a monk of St. Andrew sent by Pope Gregory to re-convert the pagan England of the Anglo-Saxons, on Friday morning, after 105 consecutive men, Mullally, the current bishop of London, was appointed. The 63-year-old first female bishop will have to face serious challenges, the most serious being the unstoppableIslamisation of the country, of which yesterday's attack on the Manchester synagogue is a prime example. He will also have to address concerns that Church leaders have not done enough to root out the sexual abuse scandals that have dogged the Church for over a decade. It was precisely because of allegations of paedophilia that the previous archbishop, Justin Welby, had to step down, leaving a vacant see for 11 months: the fact that it took almost a year to choose a successor demonstrates the deep crisis, of identity, within the Church of England.
The first women priests
.The appointment of a woman to the post represents an important milestone for a Church that ordained its first female priests in 1994 and its first female bishop in 2015. "The new archbishop will face declining church attendance, bloated administrative structures and arguments among priests about what people do in the bedroom," Andrew Graystone, an advocate for victims of abuse in the church, told the British Press Association Andrew Graystone. "But the biggest challenge for the new archbishop is restoring trust after a decade of abuse scandals."
Although the choice of the new archbishop will be made in England and ratified by King Charles III, it will have repercussions worldwide. The Anglican Communion has over 85 million faithful members in 165 countries, including the Episcopal Church in the United States. Although each national church has its own leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury is considered the first among equals.
