Mullally's Failed Presidential Address

Archbishop Mullally used her maiden presidential address to re-commit to better safeguarding standards. No mention of God, Jesus, sin or salvation

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org

February 10, 2026

By any reckoning, Dame Sarah Mullally, the new Archbishop of Canterbury's maiden presidential address to Synod was a dismal, disastrous failure. The rite for penance should be invoked.

The address was delivered to members of General Synod - the Church's parliamentary body - meeting in London this week and she lamented the Church of England's past failings on safeguarding of which she is one of the worst offenders. She said she planned to double down on raising standards.

You can read my piece here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-church-of-england-is-a-cesspool-of-failed-safeguarding

God was not even mentioned, neither was Jesus. Not even a hint of why the Church of England is in business or why it is irrelevant to 98% of the British public. There was no mention of the gospel that liberates people from their sins, just a long whine about safeguarding and the hope, however anecdotal, that, over the last four years, people have been returning to church.

Not entirely true, of course. The churches people are turning to are Pentecostal churches, independent evangelical Anglican churches, other evangelical churches that actually proclaim the risen Christ. Chinese churches have grown by 28% and large evangelical churches are growing, while smaller ones (mostly CofE) are shrinking. Vibrant Nigerian Anglican churches are dotted throughout the country.

A headline on the official Church website said attendance rose for the fourth year in a row. "The overall number of regular worshippers across the Church of England's congregations rose to 1.009 million in 2024, a rise of 0.6 per cent, according to the annual Statistics for Mission findings," the Church of England "Statistics for Mission" report says.

But Madeleine Davies of the Church Times contradicted the official optimism. "The data, published, record that in 2024 attendance rose for the fourth year, but that recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed. Increases in attendance since 2023 were smaller than in previous years. In 2019, a "middle-sized" church had an all-age average weekly attendance (AWA) of 34.5; in 2024, the equivalent figure was 26. The median church has just one child in attendance, compared with three in 2019."

The moral of this story is don't believe what the church turns out as official news. A different reading could be that any revival in the UK is occurring outside the Church of England.

Dame Mullally can't even tell the truth about her own church.

The appalling state of the Church of England will not be mitigated by telling untruths about the true state of the church. With the population of England now around 67 million, 685,000 worshippers in 2023 (the most accurate figure we have) means barely 1 per cent of the people living in the nation are turning up to C of E churches. The C of E has been in decline for decades.

She conceded the Church of England and wider Anglican Communion were facing many challenges. That's the understatement of the year. Nearly 80% of Anglicans worldwide won't even recognize her, especially those churches belonging to GAFCON. Her GSFA brethren have said that her appointment is "a missed opportunity to reunite and reform the Anglican Communion".

That she is a woman in the most sacred seat of the Anglican communion is one setback; she previously led the Church of England's Living in Love and Faith consultation on marriage, sexuality and gender identity which paved the way for its approval of same-sex blessings.

That's a huge no-no to evangelical Global South Anglicans. She just doesn't get it. And probably never will. She even faces pushback from evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics in her own church. One wonders if occupying Lambeth Palace and the pension that goes with it, is really worth the job, even with the support of the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, an arch defender of the new ABC and a man facing safeguarding issues of his own.

She said the Church had in the past "fallen tragically short" on safeguarding and that she was "committed to bringing an approach of seriousness and focused direction to all matters relating to safeguarding in all contexts in the church".

If you believe that, then you still believe Santa Claus comes down chimneys.

This appointment will turn out to be the most disastrous in the See of Canterbury's history. If you thought Justin Welby’s reign was a debacle, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

END