THE DISASTROUS APPOINTMENT OF WOMAN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org

October 3, 2025

Dame Sarah Mullally, 63, Bishop of London, will be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to hold that position in the 490-year history of the Church of England.

By all accounts she has never studied theology to graduate level. She trained part-time for the ministry receiving a Diploma of Theology from the University of Kent. She has only served six years as a rector. She was fast-tracked by Justin Welby, the former Archbishop of Canterbury because of her nursing career, along with Paula Vennells, who was apparently the other candidate for London. She is pro-choice on abortion, and pro-gay.

As one insider told VOL, “She is the English equivalent of Katharine Jefferts Schori, former TEC presiding Bishop -- inexperienced, unqualified, with no doctrinal compass. She is Welby’s toxic legacy.”

Mike Judge, writing for the Evangelical Times said it well when he wrote that the Anglican rot set in long ago.

“Today’s announcement that the Church of England has appointed Dame Sarah Mullally as its first female Archbishop of Canterbury marks not merely a new historical first, but yet further evidence that the institution — I can’t bring myself to call it a church — departed from the faith decades ago.

“Her appointment exhibits a denial of what scripture plainly teaches about male leadership in church office. Yet we must also recognise that the decay began long ago, when church structures permitted — in fact, they encouraged — the appointment of men who lacked serious conviction in God, scripture, or gospel truth. This revolution did not begin yesterday; today is simply another milestone on a sad path.”

“The Church of England has steadily diluted its commitment to biblical orthodoxy, compromised under pressure from cultural shifts, and rewarded liberal assent more than gospel faithfulness, over many decades. The abandonment of robust biblical expository preaching, the elevation of charismatic personality over theological depth, and the creeping accommodation to social trends weakened the church from within.”

When bishops and archbishops are chosen for their administrative or public appeal, rather than for their love of Christ and fidelity to scripture, the door was left open for more radical departures— such as appointing a woman to the highest bishopric. In many dioceses, clergy have long articulated little more than vague pieties, turning a blind eye to sexual ethics, compromising on doctrines of sin and substitution, or showing fear of offending prevailing cultural mores, wrote Judge.

“The leadership pipeline was hollowed out. As evangelicals from outside Anglicanism warned: mixed denominations that did not require consistent biblical conviction would sooner or later collapse inward. The Church of England’s drift is not an accident; it is the fruit of decades of toleration of theological dilution.”

Judge makes his final appeal writing; “Evangelical Anglicans across the UK and beyond must ask: will you remain in fellowship with a denomination that refuses to take scripture seriously? Or will we obey the Lord, even if that means leaving familiar structures and entering into faithful separation?”

The chairman of GAFCON, the Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, echoed his words when he wrote on behalf of millions of Global South Anglicans saying the Canterbury appointment abandons Anglicans. “The Church of England has chosen a leader who will further divide an already split Communion. We had hoped that the Church of England would take this into due consideration as it deliberated over the choice of a new Archbishop of Canterbury and would choose someone who could bring unity to a divided Anglican Communion. Sadly, they have not done so.”

“The majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy. Therefore, her appointment will make it impossible for the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as a focus of unity within the Communion.”

“More concerning is her failure to uphold her consecration vows. When she was consecrated in 2015, she took an oath to “banish and drive away all strange and erroneous doctrine contrary to God’s Word.” And yet, far from banishing such doctrine, Bishop Mullally has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality.”

Archbishop Justin Badi speaking for the GSFA said; “This appointment is a missed opportunity to reunite and reform the Anglican Communion.”

“We are deeply saddened that the person still perceived by many to be the spiritual leader of now some 100 million Anglicans worldwide has played a leading role in the Church of England’s departure from Anglican tradition and the clear teaching of Scripture in matters of marriage and sexuality.”

The South Sudan Archbishop said it was a moment of lament because he believed that the teaching of Jesus and the whole of Scripture is fundamental to human flourishing, both now and for eternity, and should not be compromised by the pressures of a particular culture.

“Sadly therefore, our position must remain as it was in our Ash Wednesday statement of February 2023 when we stated that we were no longer able to recognise the then Archbishop of Canterbury as the ‘first amongst equals’ leader of the global Communion.”

With a new woman Archbishop of Canterbury, a new Lesbian Archbishop of the Church in Wales, a new progressive Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and a new liberal Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, it would appear that Western Anglicanism is on a pathway to self-immolation.

END