Sarah Mullally enthroned as first female Archbishop of Canterbury

Insights

• Dame Sarah Mullally will be installed at Canterbury Cathedral as the first woman to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury.
• The service is designed to celebrate women and will include around 2,000 guests with local nurses and carers invited to reflect her nursing background.
• The Prince and Princess of Wales will attend representing King Charles and will hear her first sermon as archbishop.
• She completed a nearly 90 mile pilgrimage from St Paul's Cathedral to Canterbury in the days before the installation.
• Rituals include knocking three times on the west door, swearing an oath on the Saint John's Bible, and installations in the Cathedral Chair and then the Chair of St Augustine.
• The liturgy will include Urdu singing, a Gospel reading in Spanish and a prayer in the Bemba language to reflect the global Anglican Communion.
• Some conservative Anglicans oppose women priests and have selected an alternative leader in Nigeria to follow instead of Dame Sarah.
• She takes office amid ongoing controversies over same sex unions and heightened scrutiny on safeguarding after her predecessor Justin Welby resigned amid criticism over his handling of an abuse case.