Sarah Mullally enthroned as first female Archbishop of Canterbury

Sarah Mullally was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury. She is the first woman to serve as primate of the Church of England. The enthronement places her at the head of the Anglican church in England. The service marks the formal start of her tenure in the office.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop of the Church of England and is styled primate of all England. An enthronement is the ceremony in which a new archbishop takes the seat of the office. The Church of England is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Until this enthronement, every holder of the office had been a man.

A primate is the leading bishop of a church province or national church. In the Church of England that role belongs to Canterbury, with a second primate at York. Naming Mullally as the first female primate records a change in who may hold the most senior post, not a change in the church's legal status. The report of the enthronement does not describe the liturgy, the guest list, or any sermon text.

Women have been ordained as priests and, later, as bishops in the Church of England after earlier decisions of its governing bodies. The archbishopric is the last step in that sequence of offices. Enthronement does not itself rewrite doctrine. It confirms that the person already chosen for the see has taken up the chair.

The office carries duties inside England and a wider role among Anglican churches in other countries. Those churches are independent, and they do not all recognize the same rules on the ordination of women. Mullally's enthronement is an event in the Church of England. The account does not say how other Anglican provinces responded on the day.

Sarah Mullally now holds the see of Canterbury as the first woman to do so. The enthronement is the public act that installs her as primate. The Church of England has, with this service, placed a woman in its highest office. The ceremony took place on March 25.