Date: October 3, 2025
ALEXANDRIA, Va., October 3, 2025 – Virginia Theological Seminary and its Center for Anglican Communion Studies are delighted to join our sisters and brothers throughout the world in welcoming the Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop Sarah will be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury since the office was first established in 597, and the first woman to serve in the role.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and President of The General Theological Seminary, said: “VTS and GTS will seek to support Bishop Sarah’s ministry. We are blessed with an experienced leader who can support women throughout the Communion. Please join us today in prayer for Bishop Sarah.”
Bishop Sarah’s career in the Church of England includes many firsts, including being the first woman to serve as Bishop of London, the third most senior bishop in the Church of England, and the first female Dean of the Chapel Royal. In 2015, she became the first woman in the Church of England to lead an ordination service, and in 2020, she was the first woman bishop to lead a consecration service for bishops. Prior to her ordination in 2001, she was the Government’s Chief Nursing Officer for England, becoming the youngest person ever to be appointed to that role at the age of 37.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is both the Primate of all England and also the focal point of unity and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The office of Archbishop of Canterbury dates back to 597, when Augustine (later Saint Augustine of Canterbury) and 40 monks who had been sent by Pope Gregory the Great, arrived in England near the present site of Canterbury Cathedral to revive the Church in England, which had existed from Roman times and had struggled to survive during the previous two centuries. The original plan was for Augustine’s group to proceed to London, but upon their arrival they met Christian Queen Bertha and King Ethelbert of Kent, who then converted to Christianity and supported their mission. First a monastery and later the cathedral were established at Canterbury.
Notes to editors:
For media enquiries, please contact Nicky Burridge, Senior Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at VTS.
Tel: (703) 461-1782
Mobile: (703) 300-2876
Email: [email protected]
Photo caption: An artist’s rendering of the Reparations Memorial; descendants and members of the VTS board break ground for the Reparations Memorial.
About Virginia Theological Seminary:
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823 and has a long tradition of shaping faithful women and men, lay and ordained, for leadership in The Episcopal Church and beyond. It is the strongest seminary in the Anglican Communion and provides more than 25 percent of the clergy of The Episcopal Church.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]