Good morning. At a ceremony later today, Sarah Mullally will be installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury. The first woman to take on the role in its near 1,500-year history, she becomes de facto head of the Anglican communion at a difficult and painful moment for the Church of England.
Mullally takes over an institution grappling with safeguarding failures, internal division and questions about its place in modern British public life. So what exactly is the job she is stepping into – and how much power does it still carry?
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Harriet Sherwood, who recently retired after more than three decades at the Guardian, to understand the legacy Mullally inherits, and the choices ahead of her. But first, your headlines.
Five big stories
Middle East | The US is poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East as strikes intensified across the region on Tuesday and Donald Trump claimed the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war.
UK politics | Rachel Reeves has ruled out universal support to deal with any future rise in energy bills, saying any government help would be targeted, and criticised the support offered by Liz Truss’s government as unaffordable and irresponsible.
Health | The meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.
Meta | A New Mexico jury has ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users.
Environment | Ofcom to investigate climate change denial complaints for the first time since 2017.
In depth: ‘The role is high on profile but low on the power to enact change’
Previously the bishop of London, Sarah Mullally is a state-educated former NHS worker who rose to become England’s chief nursing officer. Regardless of gender, she is a very different prospect from her Old Etonian predecessor, Justin Welby, as this profile by my colleague Caroline Davies shows.
“It is fair to say that I have, both in my secular role as well as in the church, experienced misogyny at times,” Mullally said when she was confirmed as the new archbishop of Canterbury. Harriet Sherwood tells me “There are many who are very supportive of the appointment of a woman into the role,” but that is not a universal sentiment. And that is just one of the complexities of a role that is potentially high in profile but low on the power to enact change.
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A shadowed legacy
Welby’s departure came under a substantial cloud over safeguarding. “He was criticised in a very significant report into the prolific abuser John Smyth,” Harriet explains, “and for not reporting the allegations properly when they first came to his attention in 2013. That meant Smyth could have been brought to justice.”
Welby was eventually forced to say he was “profoundly ashamed” of his final speech in the House of Lords, in which he had referenced a 14th-century beheading and said “if you pity anyone, pity my poor diary secretary”. About 130 boys are believed to have been victims of Smyth – a powerful lawyer and former chair of a conservative charity that ran evangelical camps – who died in 2018.
The issue of safeguarding still hangs over the whole church. Mullally herself has faced scrutiny – a complaint about her handling of an abuse case when she was Bishop of London was dismissed by Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell who found that Mullally had not committed any misconduct and that no further action was warranted – but Harriet says “there is quite a lot of confidence that she will handle it well”.
“I think the fact she is a woman makes a difference in terms of engagement with survivors, and she is also very capable and very calm,” she says. “One of the first things she said was that she wants the church to get on the front foot on safeguarding – which it hasn’t done.”
Mullally has described safeguarding as a “fundamental, non-negotiable responsibility”, with victims and survivors at the “heart of all we do”. Nevertheless the church in 2025 rejected adopting a fully independent safeguarding model.
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A church divided
If safeguarding is one area where Mullally’s background is seen as a strength, the same does not apply across a divided global Anglican church.
“There are still churches that don’t recognise women priests at all,” Harriet points out, “and they therefore won’t recognise her leadership”.
That division is longstanding. “The church has been divided on gender and sexuality for a long time,” she says.
In February, the General Synod halted its work on LGBTQ+ reform after failing to reach consensus between conservative and liberal factions – ending years of work on allowing stand-alone services to bless same-sex civil marriages, and leaving existing restrictions in place on clergy having same-sex civil partnerships.
This timeline demonstrates how the issue has been a topic of debate in the church since 1979. “There is a lot of residual anger about the failure to resolve that,” Harriet says.
Harriet tells me that when Welby became archbishop, he undertook a huge effort to build relationships across the global church. “My sense,” she says, “is that Mullally will focus more on the Church of England, at least initially, because there is a lot of ‘steadying the ship’ to do here.”
Another controversy she will find on her hands is the church’s £100m Project Spire, aimed to address past connections to slavery, at a time when it is said hundreds of Britain’s churches may be forced to close in the next five years as the cost of maintaining heritage buildings becomes unmanageable. (Which is absolute catnip to online culture warriors who care much more about scoring points about the church being “woke” than actually going to church.)
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A question of constitution
Welby’s tenure included hugely symbolic national moments – burying a queen and crowning a king – that Mullally may not face. The Church of England’s compulsory retirement age of 70 means she has, at most, six years in the role.
She steps into office, too, at a moment of wider constitutional change. With hereditary peers being removed from the House of Lords, questions about the place of Church of England bishops in parliament have not gone away.
“There are only two countries in the world that reserve seats for clergy in parliament: England and Iran. That tells you quite a lot,” Harriet notes.
“If you were designing a second legislative chamber from scratch, it’s very unlikely anyone would include 26 Church of England bishops. It’s also arguably an anachronism that the Church of England remains the established church, given long-term declines in attendance.”
But, she adds, there is little political appetite to revisit that settlement. “There’s very little drive to remove bishops from the Lords. Reform is slow and complex – it’s taken years just to get to the point of removing hereditary peers.”
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What would success look like for Mullally?
“Honestly, success would look like calm and stability,” Harriet tells me. “The Church has been through a series of crises and real turmoil. The Smyth case was an existential moment. If Mullally can steady things, and smooth over divisions, that would already be significant progress.”
Harriet suspects Mullally “will avoid being overtly confrontational politically,” although there is one item in her in-tray that maybe needs a greater focus: the recent appropriation of Christian imagery by far-right populists.
Tommy Robinson, for example, led a “put the Christ back into Christmas” event in London last year. Some Anglican clergy – including the bishop of Kirkstall, Arun Arora, have called for Christians to reclaim the flag and their faith from rightwing activists, saying both were being desecrated by people seeking to divide the nation.
“I think the Church of England should take a clear stance on that,” Harriet says. “My expectation is that she will keep quite a low profile on those kinds of issues – though I could be wrong.”
The guest list for today’s ceremony underlines the significance of the moment. Prince William will attend on behalf of the king, alongside prime minister Keir Starmer and the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch. Confirming the international and interdenominational nature of the event there will be a prayer in the Bemba language of Zambia, a Gospel reading in Spanish, and a reading from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.
This is not just a religious ceremony, but a national and international moment. Time will tell whether Mullally’s tenure rises to meet the moment.
What else we’ve been reading
Hot cross buns come in all shapes and sizes these days. Tiramisu, lemon drizzle and even cheddar cheese. But fear not, Lucy Knight has taste tested 25 different varieties to help you choose. Patrick
I can’t in all honesty say I am a baseball fan, but I got drawn in by Rich Tenorio’s telling of how a new book credits James Creighton as the inventor of the curveball. Martin
This is a beautiful story about how one man took up dancing after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and his life was transformed by the power of ballet. Patrick
This is a rather cute conceit, as Huck magazine’s Ella Glossop visits and photographs some of the increasingly diminishing number of newsagents who still stock big ranges of print magazines. Martin
Short but sweet – Kate Ravilious explains that a new study appears to have solved the mystery of why scientists were led to believe the moon had an extremely strong magnetic field in its early history. Patrick
Sport
Football | The Chelsea head coach said the women’s game needs to be shown ‘more respect’ after the decision to rule out Veerle Buurman’s goal against Arsenal in the first half of a 3-1.
Athletics | London’s 2029 World Athletics Championships bid could be scuppered by West Ham’s refusal to allow their stadium to be used in September, Sebastian Coe has warned.
Snooker | World Snooker Championship has signed a deal to remain at the Crucible for at least the next two decades.
The front pages
“US set to deploy airborne troops as Middle East strikes intensify,” is the splash on the Guardian on Wednesday. “US troops gather in Gulf, as Trump’s deadline nears,” has the i paper.
“National Savings in chaos over payouts,” is the lead story at the Telegraph. “Middle class will lose out as benefits claimants get energy help,” says the Times, while the Mail runs with: “Middle class to ‘foot bill’ for Reeves’ benefits street fuel bailout.” “No more money unless French finally stop the boats,’” says the Express.
“VW weighs shift from cars to defence in deal with Israel’s Iron Dome maker,” is the focus at the FT. “I halted baby unit terrorist with cuddles,” says the Metro. “Would-be bomber asked me for a cuddle,” has the Mirror. Finally, the Star with: “£90??!! - England shirt hits the fan!”
Today in Focus
The Maga divide over Iran
Andrew Roth, the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent based in Washington DC, on why the war on Iran is unpopular with the US public and what it means for Maga insiders.
Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
A second pair of mountain gorilla twins have been born in Virunga national park in the DRC in just three months, park authorities announced on Tuesday. This is a big deal. The tiny infants have been placed under intensive monitoring for the next few weeks, a crucial period for their survival. The photos and videos of the baby gorillas are beautiful and mark another moment in one of the most remarkable conservation success stories of the last 100 years. Barely 250 mountain gorillas were left in the 1970s, and many thought the animals faced extinction. Now, in some places at least, they are thriving.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
