The King has approved the appointment of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, with Dame Sarah Mullally set to take up the position in January.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “I welcome the appointment of the first woman to hold the role.
“The Church of England is of profound importance to this country. Its churches, cathedrals, schools, and charities are part of the fabric of our communities.
“The Archbishop of Canterbury will play a key role in our national life. I wish her every success and look forward to working together.”
Lord Evans of Weardale, chairman of the Crown Nominations Commission for Canterbury, said he will be “praying for Bishop Sarah as she prepares to take up this new ministry in the coming months”.
Dame Sarah is the government’s former chief nursing officer for England, becoming the youngest holder of the role, having specialised as a cancer nurse.
She trained for ministry at the South East Institute of Theological Education having studied at South Bank University, London, and Heythrop College, University of London. She is currently the Bishop of London.
While making history as the first woman in the role, she will be seen by many as a safe pair of hands given her extensive experience.
She was ordained in 2001 and left her government post as chief nursing officer at the Department of Health in 2004, taking up a full-time ministry in the London borough of Sutton.
She was made a Dame in 2005 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to nursing and midwifery.
When named bishop of London in 2017, she spoke about her different careers, saying she feels she has “always had one vocation: to follow Jesus Christ”.
She said at the time: “I am often asked what it has been like to have had two careers, first in the NHS and now in the Church.
“I prefer to think that I have always had one vocation: to follow Jesus Christ, to know him and to make him known, always seeking to live with compassion in the service of others, whether as a nurse, a priest, or a bishop.”
Her appointment at that time marked a sign of Church progress on women’s roles, having followed Libby Lane making history when she was consecrated as the first woman bishop in 2015.
While the Archbishop of Canterbury is automatically granted a seat in the House of Lords, Dame Sarah has had a place there since 2018 as a senior bishop.
Dame Sarah is seen as progressive on the issue of same-sex blessings in the Church – a subject which has seen strongly competing opinions among Church members.
In 2023, after a vote to approve blessings, she described the result as a “moment of hope for the Church” but recognised that differences of opinion remained.
She said: “I know that what we have proposed as a way forward does not go nearly far enough for many but too far for others.”
On her own role in giving blessings, she said she “would have the conversation (with a couple), and there are certainly prayers within that suite (of prayers) that I would use”.
The appointment comes after an almost year-long wait since Justin Welby announced he would be resigning over a safeguarding scandal.
He announced he would quit last November over failures in the wake of the damning Makin review, which implicated him in the Church’s failure to protect victims from serial abuser John Smyth.
The review concluded Smyth might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.
Mr Welby said at the time of his resignation he continued to take both personal and institutional responsibility “for the long and retraumatising period after 2013, and the harm that this has caused survivors”.
“I continue to feel a profound sense of shame at the Church of England’s historic safeguarding failures,” he said.
In a job description published earlier this year by the Diocese of Canterbury, it was stated the person filling the role should be someone of “the utmost integrity who is able to speak honestly” about failures and injustices in the Church, and a “servant leader, who shows compassion towards the disadvantaged and marginalised”.
They must also be “unapologetic about offering a Christian perspective to local, national and international dialogue”, it added.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell took on most of the responsibilities in the interim, and was one of the voting members of the body charged with choosing Mr Welby’s successor.
The health secretary welcomed Dame Sarah’s appointment, dubbing her “the nurse who became Archbishop of Canterbury”.
“A wonderful choice. Kind, caring and compassionate,” Wes Streeting said.
The new appointee’s title is Archbishop of Canterbury-designate.
They are then elected to the College of Canons of Canterbury Cathedral, when they will become the Archbishop of Canterbury-elect.
A legal ceremony, known as the confirmation of election, will take place in a religious service at St Paul’s Cathedral in January, during which the archbishop-elect legally becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
