‘If you want to go fast, go alone – if you want to go far, go together,’ said Dame Sarah Mullally in her first address after her appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Patrick Hudson, Dickson Adeyanju
07 October 2025, The Tablet 

‘I pray that the Lord will bless you with the gifts you need, equipping you to be an instrument of communion and unity for the faithful among whom you will serve.’

The head of the Vatican’s ecumenism office congratulated the new Archbishop of Canterbury on her appointment.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, wrote to Archbishop-elect Sarah Mullally “to express the good wishes of the Catholic Church to you as you prepare to undertake this important service to your Church”.

“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,” he said after the King approved her nomination on 3 October.

Reflecting on the development of dialogue and understanding between the Catholic and Anglican Churches over the past 60 years despite “occasional tensions”, and the affection expressed after the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal Koch affirmed his “fervent hope that such closeness may continue in the years ahead as we continue to walk together on the way”.

Other church leaders around the world congratulated Mullally, with the World Council of Churches (WCC) welcoming her “historic nomination”.

“As the first woman to serve in this important role, may your leadership help the Church to listen deeply – especially to those who have suffered, to the borderlines of doubt, to the many voices often unheard – and to build anew trust where it has been broken,” said the WCC general secretary Dr Gerry Pillay.

Bishop Anthony Poggo, the secretary general of the Anglican Communion, asked its member churches “to pray for the archbishop-designate as she prepares to take up this important ministry”.

“In some places, the bonds of our Anglican Communion are strained. There are areas of disagreement and disunity between our churches that need God’s healing,” he said. “In all of this, may God grant the archbishop-designate wisdom and discernment, as she seeks to listen to member churches, encourage mutual support, and foster unity.”

Such divisions were evident in Africa, where members of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), a network of conservative Anglican churches, said they received the news of Mullally’s appointment “with sorrow”.

Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, the primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, said it was “a sad development for the Communion”. However, the Church of Southern Africa, which is not part of Gafcon, called the appointment “historic” and said that “we heartily welcome the announcement”.

Gafcon was formed in Jerusalem in 2008 in response to what conservative churches said were major theological differences within the Anglican Communion, in particular over the issue of same-sex unions. It said it was defending the “tenets of orthodoxy”, objecting to developments including the Church of England’s ordination of women bishops in 2014.

In the “Kigali Commitment” in 2023, the group rejected the leadership of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby over proposals to bless same-sex couples.

“We had hoped that the Church of England would take this into due consideration as it deliberated over the choice of a new Archbishop of Canterbury and would choose someone who could bring unity to a divided Anglican Communion,” said a letter to Gafcon churches last week from the Archbishop of Rwanda Laurent Mbanda, who chairs its leadership council.

“Sadly, they have not done so,” he said. “Though there are some who will welcome the decision to appoint Bishop Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy. Therefore, her appointment will make it impossible for the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as a focus of unity within the Communion.”

Gafcon bishops will meet in Abuja on 3-6 March 2026 for what is expected to be their most significant gathering since 2008.

In her first public address after her appointment, Archbishop-designate Mullally said: “If you want to go fast, go alone – if you want to go far, go together.”