27.03.2026
Archbishop of Canterbury Will Need Our Prayers as Never Before
Archbishop Michael Jackson reflects on the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday March 25
The one hundredth and sixth archbishop of Canterbury was installed in Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday March 25th 2026. By anyone’s reckoning this is a most significant day in the history of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion. Sarah Elizabeth Mullally is the first woman to hold this office. I had the privilege to be invited to attend. At the very beginning, when asked by children from the John Wallis Academy, Ashford: ‘We greet you in the name of Christ. Who are you and why do you request entry?’ she replied: ‘I am Sarah, a servant of Jesus Christ, and I come as one seeking the grace of God, to travel with you in his service together.’
On Saturday March 28th there is to be a service of welcome by the diocese of Canterbury. Wednesday’s service was of Provincial and Communion–wide proportions. These national and international considerations were threaded throughout the afternoon’s proceedings. The choir of Canterbury Cathedral sang Khudaya, rahem kar, an Urdu liturgical text of the Kyrie Eleison and the Gospel acclamation in Swahili – Hata Milele – was sung in an unforgettable manner by the African Choir of Norfolk. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster read the Old Testament Reading. The Anglican bishop of Mexico read the Gospel in Spanish. The Primate of the Church of the Province of Central Africa prayed for the archbishop in Bemba after the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion presented the Compass Rose to the archbishop. Along with the legalities intrinsic to an installation there was the signing by the archbishop of the Presidents’ Covenant of Churches Together in England.
Facing into a difficult, some might argue well–nigh impossible, job both in the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Mullally preached a positively cautious sermon. She spoke of beginning on Tuesday by walking the same pilgrim walk from London to Canterbury as had Thomas Becket, one of her predecessors. She then quoted from a prayer written for her pilgrimage by student chaplains: ‘… that God might strengthen us in faith, grant us a heart like Christ, gentle, humble and devoted to the truth, so that we may share the Gospel with joy.’ She acknowledged the war–torn nature of the world and the plight of victims and survivors in situations of abuse in church contexts. She drew attention to the extraordinary acts of love in ordinary lives. All of this tied in with the Annunciation and the courage of Mary who had ‘the audacity to believe that with God we can do extraordinary things.’
The service continued outside the walls of the cathedral with the archbishop blessing the city and the diocese taking up the words of Jeremiah 29.7: ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.’
A number of thoughts struck me. The first is that this archbishop of Canterbury will need the prayers of all of us in sustaining her ministry and in leading the Anglican Communion as never before. The Anglican Communion along with its Commissions and Networks turned out in force to pray with her and to support her on the day. The second is a reflective question: Have we allowed that sense of responsibility to the city and to civic society fade from our spiritual consciousness and, if so, how are we to regain both a grasp of such responsibility and the affection of the society to whom we belong that we have lost? The third is the memory of the words with which the children left the archbishop at the beginning of the service and my conviction of our need to take them to heart: ‘Let us then humble ourselves before God and together seek his mercy and strength.’ Holy Week gives us the perfect opportunity to do this as we make our own pilgrimages in our communities and towards Easter Day.
