A 1,400-Year-Old Role Is Now Held by a Woman

A 1,400-year-old ritual looked very different on Wednesday, when the Church of England formally installed Sarah Mullally as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury—and the first woman ever to lead the church and serve as spiritual head of the global Anglican Communion. The 90-minute ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral began with her knocking three times on the great west door and entering to a welcome from local schoolchildren; the Prince and Princess of Wales and Prime Minister Keir Starmer were among those in the pews. You can read the text of the sermon that Mullally, a former chief nursing officer for England, gave here.

• Timing: The AP reports that in a nod to Mullally's historic appointment, the service was held on the Feast of the Annunciation, which marks the moment Mary was told she had been chosen to be the mother of Jesus. It is a day on which the church says it celebrates "one of the great women of the Bible and thinks about how we can respond to God's call."
• Timing II: Although Sarah Mullally, 63, formally became archbishop in January, Wednesday's event marked the beginning of her public ministry as both the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The communion is an association of independent churches, including the Episcopal Church in the US, that together have more than 100 million members.
• History: The celebration marks a major milestone for the Church of England, which traces its roots to the year 597, when the pope sent St. Augustine to Britain to convert the population to Christianity. He is now recognized as the first archbishop of Canterbury. The English church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, during the reign of King Henry VIII.
• Her 'calm': NPR spoke with Madeleine Davies, a senior journalist for Church Times who has met Mullally a number of times and expects her experience as Britain's chief nursing officer will serve her well. "She always seems very calm, in control, self-contained," Davies said. "She's got quite a peaceable presence, and I think that will be reassuring to people."
• Her journey: The New York Times and NPR report that prior to her installation, Mullally spent six days making the 87-mile pilgrimage from St. Paul's Cathedral in London to Canterbury, a journey made famous by the Canterbury Tales. Times notes she "is the first archbishop in the modern era to make the journey."