The new Anglican Bishop of London is a woman. Her name is Sarah Mullally and Queen Elizabeth has approved her appointment as the 133rd Bishop of London today. Bishop Sarah succeeds the Rt Rev Richard Chartres who retired earlier this year. She will be enthroned in 2018 during a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral. London has now a female bishop after the Church of England’s decision to allow female bishops in 2005, following a bitter dispute over women’s ordination, and 20 years after the ordination of the first female priests. Libby Lane was the first British woman to be ordained a bishop during a ceremony that took place at York Minster in the presence of a hundred bishops and hundreds of faithful. Prior to her ordination, Bishop Sarah, a nurse by profession, was Chief Nursing Officer in the Department of Health. She was ordained in 2001 and appointed Bishop of Crediton in the Diocese of Exeter in 2015. “It is a great honour to be nominated to the See of London”, she said in a statement. “Having lived and worked in London for over 32 years, the thought of returning here is about returning home. 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”. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was one of the first to congratulate her: “As one of the first women consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England, she has not only blazed a trail for others but lived out the principles of mutual flourishing and acceptance which I know will continue to bear fruit in London”.
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