Pope and first female archbishop of Canterbury meet and pray together

Story by Joshua McElwee and Muvija M

Pope Leo meets Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally at the Vatican, April 27, 2026. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS© Thomson Reuters

By Joshua McElwee and Muvija M

VATICAN CITY, April 27 (Reuters) - Pope Leo and new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally met for the first time on Monday, in a symbolic encounter in Rome in which the leaders of the long-separated Catholic Church and Church of England exchanged gifts and prayed together.

Pope Leo shakes hands with Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally during their meeting at the Vatican, April 27, 2026. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS© Thomson Reuters

Mullally, the first woman to serve as spiritual leader of the world's 85 million Anglicans, was welcomed by Leo, the first American leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, into his formal office at the Vatican's ornate Apostolic Palace.

Pope Leo holds a jar of Lambeth Palace honey he received from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, during their meeting at the Vatican, April 27, 2026. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS© Thomson Reuters

The two leaders met privately before going together to a 17th-century chapel where they recited prayers in unison.

In formal remarks, Mullally thanked Leo for his new, forceful speaking style. On a four-nation Africa tour, Leo sharply denounced war and despotism, angering U.S. President Donald Trump.

"The world needed this message at this time – thank you," she said. "It reminded us that, despite our sufferings, people long for life in all its fullness, and countless people are working each day for this vision of the common good."

Leo told Mullally that progress had been made in drawing the Catholic Church and Church of England together but lamented that "new problems have arisen in recent decades" without specifying them.

"We must not allow these continuing challenges to prevent us from using every possible opportunity to proclaim Christ to the world together," said the pope.

Sarah Mullally becomes first woman archbishop of Canterbury

Lisa Hornung
Wed, March 25, 2026 at 2:46 PM EDT

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally meets well-wishers after her installation in Canterbury Cathedral in Britain on Wednesday. The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop, leader of the Church of England, and ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Sarah Mullally is the 106th and first female Archbishop of Canterbury since the role was created in 597. Photo by Neil Hall/EPAMore


March 25 (UPI) -- Sarah Elisabeth Mullally was installed Wednesday as the first woman to hold the title of archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

Mullally, 63, is the 106th person to hold the title of the most senior cleric in the Church of England and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which includes some 85 million Anglicans around the world. And she is the only one who isn't a man.

In her first sermon as archbishop, she honored victims of church abuse.

"We hold victims and survivors in our hearts and in our prayers, and we must remain committed to truth, compassion, justice and action," she said.

"In a world already torn by conflict, suffering and division, we must also acknowledge the hurt that exists much closer to home," she said. "We must not overlook or minimize the pain experienced by those who have been harmed through the actions, inactions or failures of those in our own Christian churches and communities."

Bishop Sarah Mullally arrives for her installation as the archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral. Photo by Neil Hall/EPA

About 2,000 invited guests attended the ceremonial installment, which is historically called an enthronement, including William, prince of Wales, and Kate Middleton, princess of Wales. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was also there. Also in the congregation was a contingent of nurses and caregivers from Canterbury to honor Mullally's former career as a nurse.

While Mullally has served in the position since January, the Wednesday's ceremony marks the symbolic beginning of her service as the archbishop. She was named to the position in October.

Archbishop of Canterbury's tenure ends after resigning over failures in handling abuse scandal

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s tenure officially ends Monday, two months after he resigned following an inquiry that found he failed to tell police about serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it

January 6, 2025 at 11:42 a.m. ESTToday at 11:42 a.m. EST

FILE - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivers his speech as Pope Francis presides over the first vespers on the day the Catholic church celebrates the conversion of St. Paul, in the St.Paul’s Basilica, in Rome, on Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

By Danica Kirka | AP

LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby ’s tenure officially ends Monday, two months after he resigned following an inquiry that found he failed to tell police about serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Welby, the head of Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, will lay down his bishop’s crozier – a ceremonial long staff – in a symbolic act that marks the end of his ministry. Most of his official functions will be delegated to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, as the church embarks on the lengthy process of selecting a new leader.

Welby had announced in November that he would resign after an independent investigation into the late John Smyth, a prominent attorney who the inquiry said sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa from the 1970s until his death in 2018.

The 251-page report of the Makin Review concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. Had he done so, Smyth could have been stopped sooner.

Archbishop of Canterbury enthroned: order of service

The Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, the Very Rev Robert Williis, talks through the enthronement service for the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, which will feature African dancers, Punjabi music and a female cleric. 



12:59PM GMT 21 Mar 2013


The Venerable Sheila Watson, Archdeacon of Canterbury, will take a central role in the Canterbury Cathedral service marking the start of the public ministry of the Most Rev Justin Welby as 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.

The cleric, who was made the first female Archdeacon of Canterbury in 2007, will install the archbishop on the diocesan throne in the cathedral, a historic moment symbolising his appointment as bishop of Canterbury - the first of three roles held by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The archbishop will then be installed by the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev Robert Willis, on the marble chair of St Augustine in the cathedral, marking his appointment as head of the Church of England and also representing his inauguration as spiritual leader of the 77-million strong Anglican Communion.

Other features of the ceremony include a key role for a young member of the Anglican Communion, Evangeline Kanagasooriam, who will ask the Most Rev Welby formal questions about his role after he has struck the West Door of the cathedral three times with his staff at the start of the service.
There will also be an African element, reflecting the Most Rev Welby's ties with the continent through his former job as an oil executive and most recently in peace and reconciliation work.


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The Archbishop of Burundi, in central Africa, the Most Rev Bernard Ntahoturi, will pronounce a blessing in French on the the Most Rev Welby and African dancers who will perform before the Gospel is read at the service.

Other personal touches include the choice of the Most Rev Welby's robes for the service.

He will wear colourful vestments originally designed and made for the late Bishop of Peterborough, the Most Rev Ian Cundy, who was the Most Rev Welby's tutor at Cranmer Hall, Durham, where he trained in preparation for ordination between 1989 and 1992 after leaving the oil industry.

Westminster Cathedral organist Matthew Martin will perform an organ improvisation during the service when five representatives from the worldwide Anglican Communion place symbols representing their region on the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral.

During the service, Archbishop Welby will be asked to make the declaration of assent - outlining his loyalty to the Church of England - by the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu.

The Most Rev Welby will then be asked by the Very Rev Willis to swear an oath of faithfulness on the Canterbury Gospels, brought to Britain by St Augustine in 597.

The service will feature a newly commissioned anthem using the opening words of the Rule of St Benedict set to music by the composer Michael Berkeley.

The ceremony coincides with the feast day of St Benedict of Monte Cassino, a significant figure for both Canterbury Cathedral - which was a Benedictine Monastery a thousand years ago - and Archbishop Welby who is an oblate of the Order of Benedict.


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Anglican Panel Rejects Proposal to Cut Episcopal Church

WorldTue, Jul. 27 2010 10:49 AM EDT

By Lillian KwonChristian Post Reporter

A 15-member committee that includes the Archbishop of Canterbury recently rejected a proposal that The Episcopal Church be separated from the rest of the global Anglican Communion.

During closed sessions on Saturday, members of the Standing Committee acknowledged the anxieties felt in parts of the global body about sexuality issues but agreed that separation would inhibit dialogue on the issue and would therefore be unhelpful, according to the church body's news service.

The proposal was brought by Dato' Stanley Isaacs from the Province of South East Asia. It came months after The Episcopal Church – the U.S. body of Anglicanism – ordained its second openly homosexual bishop. The Rev. Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, was consecrated as bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in May.

The move was seen as another act of defiance of Scripture and the 77 million-member communion. Anglican leaders had agreed to a moratorium on the consecration of bishops living in same-sex relationships a number of times since 2004. The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003.

While rejecting the proposal, Standing Committee members agreed to defer further discussion on the matter until progress on a listening project had been considered. Currently, Anglicans worldwide are participating in "The Continuing Indaba and Mutual Listening Project," which is intended to open the ears of Anglicans to the experiences of homosexual persons.

During the five-day Standing Committee meeting, which concluded Tuesday, in London, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, acknowledged that the credibility of some of the executive structures was being openly questioned and that criticisms were being directed at the committee itself.

Earlier this year, a number of conservative Anglican leaders resigned from the Standing Committee after expressing their discontentment. Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda wrote in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he disapproved of the participation of leaders from The Episcopal Church in the committee, noting that they are "the very ones who have pushed the Anglican Communion into this sustained crisis."

He also opposed the "enhanced responsibility" of the Standing Committee and the "diminished responsibility" of the primates – the chief bishops of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces. Only five primates are represented in the committee. Bishop Mouneer Anis of the Middle East had resigned in February saying his presence had no value and that his voice was "like a useless cry in the wilderness."

The Standing Committee meets at least once a year and oversees day-to-day operations of the Anglican Communion Office.

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Source: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100727/anglican-panel-rejects-proposal-to-cut-episcopal-church/

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Rowan Williams under siege over gay bishop veto

David Cameron urged to consider appointing cleric blocked by church committee

Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 July 2010 21.51 BST

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams speaks on the final day of the Lambeth conference. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, is embroiled in a new crisis within the Church of England over the decision to block the appointment of a gay cleric as bishop of Southwark.

Liberals and mainstream Anglicans are furious that the archbishop has once more failed to exert any leadership over mutinous forces threatening to split the church over the sensitive issue of homosexuality.

Dr Jeffrey John, the dean of St Albans, was in the running for the senior position at Southwark until his name was leaked, enabling conservative clerics to stop the appointment. An embattled Williams has now launched an inquiry at Lambeth Palace to find out who divulged the name .

The archbishop was appalled that John's name was disclosed in a successful attempt to derail his candidacy, exactly seven years after he was forced to stand down as the prospective bishop of Reading following a previous outcry by conservative evangelicals against John's sexuality. Fingers are being pointed at the same evangelical hardliners who orchestrated the 2003 campaign.

The theologian, who is now dean of St Albans and has entered a civil partnership with another clergyman, his partner of many years, has long maintained that the relationship is chaste and thus complies with Church of England rules for its gay clergy.

But conservative evangelical pressure groups claimed John's appointment would split the church, threatened to seek oversight from foreign bishops and promised to stop supporting the church financially.

The revival of the row over the place of gays in the clergy comes as Williams confronts the Church of England's next great divisive row at the start of this weekend's general synod in York: over whether female clergy can become bishops – a dispute that threatens to split the church in another direction and which he is desperately trying to head off with delaying tactics.

John's supporters called for David Cameron to demonstrate his gay-friendly credentials by overruling the Crown Nominations Commission and insisting that John's name be considered further. They accused the archbishop of betraying his old friend a second time.

One senior cleric said: "The time of reckoning has come for Rowan. The events of seven years ago have bitten him hard in the very week women bishops comes to the crunch. He should realise there are greater considerations, like truth, justice, openness, fidelity to the rules and all those things the church proclaims. Many are dismayed by his constant capitulation to the fringe noisemakers.

"He could recover some credibility if he went mitre in hand to the PM and asked him to intervene and use his constitutional prerogative to consider the second name, whoever that is, and then to reject both if he so chooses."

Another senior cleric said: "The system of appointments is busted. What is needed is more transparency over how appointments are made. Obsessive secrecy is damaging the church."

Giles Goddard, chair of the liberal Inclusive Church movement, who is himself a gay vicar in south London, said: "This is a disaster for the church – another example of shooting itself in the foot. It would be much better to have a more open system."

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and former Anglican cleric, who is also gay, said: "I have long supported the election of bishops. If the clergy and people of a diocese want a gay bishop they should be able to vote for one, in which case Jeffrey John would have been archbishop of Canterbury by now. There are not many men who combine his spiritual depth and insight. The way things are conducted now does not do the church any favours." Downing Street sources suggested, however, that the prime minister was unlikely to intervene.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/08/rowan-williams-gay-bishop
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Rome's call: 'Come on over'

By George F. Will

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Late in life, the mother of the Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., began attending mass at a Southern California church, the congregation of which soon became Spanish-speaking. Services were conducted entirely in that language, which she could not understand, yet she happily continued attending. When her son asked why, she replied: "It is just like the Latin Mass, I don't understand a word of it. It is even better, I don't understand the homily." We have all listened to a speaker and wished: If only he were incomprehensible. As G.K. Chesterton said of Times Square, it would be beautiful if you could not read.

Mrs. Reese's son, now 64 and a senior fellow at a religious-issues think tank at Georgetown University, was raised experiencing the liturgy in Latin. He entered seminary in 1962, the year the Second Vatican Council convened. By the time Reese was ordained, the council had essentially proscribed the Latin Mass.

Having seen much change -- and much resistance to it -- Reese is relaxed about 2009's most intriguing development in Christianity, the Vatican's enticement of disaffected Anglicans. Rome is saying to individuals, and perhaps to entire parishes and even dioceses: "Come on over." It is trolling with rules, recently written, that will enable Anglicans-become-Catholics to retain some of their liturgy. The church will accept some already married priests, and perhaps married seminarians, but not bishops.

The Vatican says it is not raiding but merely answers to Anglican knocks on its door. Combined, however, with Pope Benedict XVI's having appealed to dissident conservative Catholics by removing most restrictions on celebrating the traditional Latin Mass, the courtship of Anglicans looks like an aggressive -- although not improperly so -- attempt to consolidate an expanded Catholicism.

There are 1.1 billion Catholics. Anglicanism is the third-largest Christian communion (Eastern Orthodox is second) but has just 80 million adherents, of whom only 2.3 million are Americans, and a mere 16,000 of them -- those in New Hampshire -- have helped to precipitate the Vatican's move. The election of a gay Episcopalian as New Hampshire's bishop was one brick over a load for conservatives, who think the Episcopal Church has become a Moveon.org at prayer -- liberal politics in vestments.

Half of all Anglicans are in sub-Saharan Africa. There and in Latin America, Anglicanism is culturally conservative, reducing conservatives' reasons for embracing Catholicism.

Reese disputes the assumption that the Vatican is accelerating a sorting out that will produce a more conservative Catholic Church. Some Catholics, he notes, will experience the fact, and many more will contemplate the idea, of married priests administering the sacraments. This, Reese thinks, may remind Catholics that for its first thousand or so years, the church had married priests and bishops. A celibate priesthood, he says, is a product of church law, which can be changed.

Reese thinks that would strengthen the church in the competition for souls. In parts of Latin America, he says, Catholic priests are so scarce that many villages see one only a few times a year. Evangelical Protestants, however, come to a village, identify a respected man, married or not, train him, build a church and the village becomes Protestant.

Reese, slight and bespectacled, laughs easily and infectiously but once caused a future pope to mutter, as Henry II did about Thomas a Beckett, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Reese was editor of the Jesuit magazine America until 2005, when he was reprimanded by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose defense of orthodoxy earned him the sobriquet "God's Rottweiler." Then he became Benedict XVI. Reese's offense, conservative Catholics said, was latitudinarianism -- lack of stringency regarding disputes about faith and morals.

But with the Latin Mass restored and Anglicans being courted with liturgical concessions, will the Catholic Church have three liturgies? Who are the latitudinarians now?

Today, the most contentious issues between liberal and conservative Anglicans concern gay and female priests. But many of the conservative Anglicans to whom Rome is beckoning are apt to be especially serious about the theological differences with Rome that have defined Anglicanism for almost five centuries, including the nature of the sacraments, veneration of Mary, and papal infallibility.

Benedict XVI's 2010 visit to Britain, where the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot be amused by Vatican poaching, may be awkward, but the most disconcerting consequences of what the Vatican began in 2009 might eventually be felt by conservative keepers of Catholic tradition. Popes have mighty powers, but the law of unintended consequences contains no exemptions for the merely infallible.

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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/23/AR2009122302396.html

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Pope to meet with Anglican leader amid rising tension

November 21, 2009 1:28 a.m. EST

Anglican leader Rowan Williams says an universal Christian church may need to be structured without a central authority.

(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI is expected to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury on Saturday, the first meeting between the religious leaders since a Catholic overture to disaffected Anglicans that some commentators compared to a hostile takeover on Wall Street.

Rowan Williams, the nominal head of the world Anglican Communion, threw down a theological gauntlet to the pope in a highly challenging speech in Rome in the run-up to their meeting.

He laid out a series of questions suggesting that decades of hard-won apparent reconciliation between the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations might have weak foundations.

He also proposed that a truly universal Christian church might have to be structured more like the Anglican Communion -- with no central authority laying down the law -- than like the Catholic Church, with the pope on his throne.

"Is there a mechanism in the church that has the clear right to determine for all where the limits of Christian identity might be found?" Williams asked. "Is the integrity of the church ultimately dependent on a single identifiable ministry of unity to which all local ministries are accountable?"

The meeting comes in the wake of a Vatican move that some say will shatter more than 40 years of efforts to reconcile the Catholic and Anglican churches.

The Vatican announced in October that it had worked out a way for Anglicans who are dissatisfied with their church to switch allegiance en masse to Rome.

The process will enable groups of Anglicans to become Catholic and recognize the pope as their leader, yet have parishes that retain Anglican rites, Vatican officials said. The move comes some 450 years after King Henry VIII broke from Rome and created the Church of England, forerunner of the Anglican Communion.

The number of Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church has increased in recent years as the Anglican Church has welcomed the ordination of women and openly gay clergy, said Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in announcing the move in October.

Williams was said to have been taken by surprise by the move, which critics described as an end run around a long-established Catholic-Anglican dialogue.

"The Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion," Levada said.

Levada said "hundreds" of Anglicans around the world have expressed their desire to join the Catholic Church. Among them are 50 Anglican bishops, said Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Catholic and Anglican theology and rites are broadly similar, but Anglicans have long allowed priests to marry and have children.

In recent decades, the Anglican Communion has allowed women to become priests. The Episcopal Church, the United States branch of the Anglican Communion, has ordained an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, and appears to be on the verge of ordaining more.

Those developments have caused controversy within the communion, with more conservative parishes setting up alternative structures of authority.

Pope Benedict hinted clearly when he last met Williams in Rome almost exactly three years ago to the day that Rome did not look kindly on the Anglican moves.

"Recent developments, especially concerning the ordained ministry and certain moral teachings, have affected not only internal relations within the Anglican Communion but also relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church," the pope said in November 2006.

"We believe that these matters, which are presently under discussion within the Anglican Communion, are of vital importance to the preaching of the gospel in its integrity, and that your current discussions will shape the future of our relations," he added.

There are about 77 million Anglicans worldwide, and about 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

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Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/21/vatican.pope.archbishop/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

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Rome and Canterbury

Rome and Canterbury

James Martin, S.J., offers three questions to consider in response to the Vatican's surprise decision to reach out to disaffected Anglicans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gKhF5gQX5k&feature=player_embeddedhttp://

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Note: This video is from America "the" Jesuit on line Magazine, a Catholic perspective:

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/video/video-index.cfm?series_id=1125

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