Overview
- Dame Sarah Mullally will be enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday before more than 2,000 guests, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, over two dozen Anglican primates, and a representative from the Vatican.
- The new archbishop completed a six-day, roughly 140 km pilgrimage from St Paul’s Cathedral to Canterbury on Sunday, arriving to church bells and a public welcome at the cathedral.
- Cathedral officials say the service will proceed without new safety measures during a local meningitis outbreak in Kent, though they are in contact with health authorities and Mullally has offered condolences to affected families.
- GAFCON, a conservative bloc of mostly African and Asian Anglican churches, has formed a rival council and says it will not recognize her spiritual authority, while former Archbishop Rowan Williams said he will not attend and questioned whether the Communion can survive.
- Mullally, a former Chief Nursing Officer for England who invited NHS nurses and carers to the service, inherits a role that relies on persuasion across about 85 million Anglicans in 165 countries and a church at home grappling with falling attendance and past safeguarding failures.