A woman has been appointed as the bishop of London, the third position in the Church of England, in a move that delighted campaigners for gender equality but is likely to dismay conservatives in the church.
Sarah Mullally, the bishop of Crediton, has been appointed the 133rd bishop of London, Downing Street announced. She will automatically take a seat in the House of Lords and the post-holder is traditionally dean of the royal chapels.
At a press conference at St Paul’s Cathedral, Mullally said she was “delighted and slightly terrified” at her appointment. She was careful to reach out across theological divisions within the church in her first comments after the announcement, and said she wanted to serve “people of faith and no faith”.
Before becoming a priest, she worked as a nurse in NHS hospitals in the capital, including St Thomas’ and the Royal Marsden, and became chief nursing officer in 1999. She was ordained as a priest in 2001 and made a dame in recognition of her services to nursing in 2005.
“It is a great honour to be nominated to the see of London. Having lived and worked in London for over 32 years, the thought of returning here is about returning home,” she said.
“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.
“To be given the opportunity to do that now in this vibrant world city is a wonderful privilege.”
London is one of the few areas in which C of E congregations are growing, but it is a complex diocese with a formidable presence of conservatives, both from the Anglo-Catholic and evangelical traditions, who disapprove of women priests.
Mullally told reporters: “I respect those that cannot accept my ministry as a bishop because I am a woman.”
She said the diocese was theologically diverse, and she would work with the bishops of Fulham and Maidstone, who minister to clergy and congregations who do not accept female priests.
The previous bishop of London, Richard Chartres, declined to ordain priests of either gender in order to avoid stirring controversy. Mullally became the first female bishop to lead an ordination service two years ago, when she ordained four clergy, three of whom were women.
Watch, which campaigns for gender equality in the church, said it was “immensely delighted” at the appointment. London was one of the lowest performing dioceses in terms of women in ministry and senior leadership roles, it pointed out.
But Tony Robinson, bishop of Wakefield and chairman of Forward in Faith which does not accept women’s ordination, said Mullally’s appointment in a diocese where so many people rejected the ministry of women would result in ”a deeper impairment of communion”.
Mullally is viewed as supportive of LGBT equality. The new bishop said London was a very diverse city and that she hoped everyone could find a spiritual home. She did, however, endorse current C of E teaching that marriage was a union between a man and woman, saying: “I absolutely support that.”
William Taylor, the rector of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, one of London’s largest churches, threatened to break from the C of E earlier this month if the next bishop of London had liberal views on sexuality. The church tweeted its congratulations to Mullally on Monday, and said it looked forward to working with her on “mutual flourishing”.
Jayne Ozanne, a leading LGBT campaigner in the church, said she was “absolutely delighted with this extraordinarily brave, courageous and well-deserved appointment”.
She added: “Her appointment will ensure that the church takes seriously its commitment to learning from medicine and science, particularly in the areas of human sexuality and gender, where we have often been so ignorant.”
Mullally said the church needed more black and minority ethnic clergy and better representation of disabled people, as well as women, in order to better represent the communities it served.
She spoke of deprivation and inequality in London, where some people felt “marginalised, voiceless and angry”. Such emotions had been evident at last week’s memorial service for Grenfell Tower, she said, and many urgent issues remained unresolved.
On safeguarding within the church, she said she would “seek to have a culture … where there is no place for abuse”, and planned to work with survivors and help them flourish.
Gilo, a survivor whose surname is withheld at his request, and who has campaigned for independent oversight of safeguarding within the church, said: “I think survivors will hope this represents a long overdue turning point.
“As third most senior bishop, Dame Sarah Mullally can now take a far more decisive role in championing a compassionate and just response with real structural reformation at last. I hope she invites survivors, men and women, to her enthronement – not as protesters but as presences of the need for authentic justice and healing for all survivors.”
