VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The head of the Vatican’s ecumenical office congratulated Anglican Bishop Sarah Mullally of London on her appointment as the next archbishop of Canterbury.
“I write to congratulate you on your appointment and to express the good wishes of the Catholic Church to you as you prepare to undertake this important service in your Church,” wrote Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.
The British prime minister’s office announced Oct. 3 that King Charles III, supreme governor of the Church of England, had approved Bishop Mullally’s nomination.
“The 106th?Archbishop of Canterbury since Saint Augustine arrived in Kent from Rome in 597, Bishop Sarah will be the first woman to hold the office,” said the announcement on the Church of England website.
She is scheduled to be installed as archbishop and leader of the Anglican Communion in a service at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2026. Traditionally, the pope would send a message upon the archbishop’s installation rather than when the nomination is announced.
Cardinal Koch, in a letter sent by email to the bishop on the day of her nomination was announced, said, “I pray that the Lord will bless you with the gifts you need for the very demanding ministry to which you have now been called, equipping you to be an instrument of communion and unity for the faithful among whom you will serve.”
Bishop Mullally succeeds Archbishop Justin Welby who resigned in November 2024 after he was implicated in the cover-up of the case of a serial sexual abuser.
Cardinal Koch noted in his letter that the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion had been engaged in ecumenical dialogue for nearly 60 years “during which time we have grown greatly in mutual understanding and affection.”
“Despite occasional tensions, this work of seeking deeper communion has been supported by the warmth of the relationships between the pastors of our two communions,” the cardinal said.
Those tensions have included Catholic-Anglican differences over the ordination of women as priests and then as bishops, as well as differences between Catholic and Anglicans and among Anglicans themselves over blessings for same-sex couples.
Still, Cardinal Koch said, the close personal relationships between leaders of the two communities was evident in the number of Anglican bishops — including Bishop Mullally — who attended Pope Francis’ funeral in April.
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