The First Woman to Lead the Church of England Formally Installed at Ceremony Before 2,000 Guests – 10 Exclusive Photos

A centuries-old institution made room for a first on Wednesday, and Canterbury Cathedral has never quite looked like this before. The pictures at the end of this article say the rest.

For close to 15 centuries, the names of the Archbishops of Canterbury have been carved into three stone slabs inside the cathedral that bears the title. 105 names in total, stretching back to St Augustine in A.D. 597, and every single one belonging to a man.

However, two months ago, a stonemason quietly added a new name to the end of that list, and on Wednesday, the world saw what it means.

Dame Sarah Mullally, 63, was formally installed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral on 25 March 2026, becoming the first woman in history to lead the Church of England.

More than 2,000 people filled the cathedral for the occasion, among them William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and the Prime Minister, alongside faith leaders, healthcare workers, and local schoolchildren.

The service opened at the Great West Door, where Mullally knocked and sought admission. On a day built entirely around first times, it was the schoolchildren who opened the door to let her in.

Inside the cathedral, a mandate sent by King Charles III — who did not attend in person — formally instructing the Church to install Mullally as archbishop was read aloud to the congregation.

Mullally then renewed her vows and her commitments to her ministry before taking an oath before the assembled gathering.

Captured in 10 photographs at the end of the article, she took her place in St Augustine's Chair — an ancient marble seat whose origins trace to the early 13th century — near the close of the service and delivered her inaugural sermon to those around her.

It was the symbolic start of a ministry that had legally begun in January and now, at last, felt complete.

The Very Rev. Dr. David Monteith, dean of Canterbury Cathedral, had captured it plainly in the days beforehand when he shared, "Installing Sarah as our first female archbishop would have almost been unimaginable even 50 years ago." His next two words carried everything: "Today matters."

The name newly carved onto that cathedral stone reads Sarah Elisabeth Mullally, and the path that brought her to this moment is unlike that of any of the 105 archbishops who came before her.

Born in Woking, southwest of London, in 1962, Mullally spent more than three decades working within the National Health Service, starting on the wards as a cancer nurse and eventually leading the nursing team at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

By 1999, aged just 37, she had become chief nursing officer for England within the Department of Health — the youngest person ever to hold the post.

But throughout all of it, she has said, she felt "a calling to the church." She was ordained in 2001 and stepped away from her government post three years later, describing it at the time as "the biggest decision I have ever made."

As the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, Mullally now leads the Anglican Communion, a body representing some 85 million Anglicans around the world.

In the days before Wednesday's installation, she completed an 87-mile pilgrimage on foot, walking for six days from St Paul's Cathedral in London to Canterbury. No archbishop in the modern era had made that journey before her. She was the first of those, too.

Wednesday's historic moment resonated far beyond the cathedral walls. Online, the reaction was swift — and heartfelt. "A truly historic and meaningful day," one person shared. "Witnessing this moment at Canterbury Cathedral feels especially significant."

Others were less measured in their admiration. "I can't believe in this day and age, people are still outraged by a woman being in a senior position," wrote one commenter.

"It's 2026 not 1626! And it's even more heartbreaking that so many women seem to also be against it too, no doubt because they were made to feel inferior themselves," they continued.

Not every response carried the same weight, naturally. Mullally's expression in one photo — a wide, unguarded smile at the moment of her enthronement — drew its own wave of lighter remarks.

"Her face says it all! Lol," read one comment. "Similar to my look while I'm on the throne," quipped another. One commenter, apparently struck by how well Mullally looked at 63, went straight to the point, adding, "How did she manage to live so long? What's her secret?"

And then there was the comment that cut through everything else with the single, quietly remarkable observation, "So most likely, this will be the person who will crown Prince William King."

It is the kind of observation that stops you in your tracks — and one that speaks to just how far Wednesday's moment extends beyond the cathedral walls.

Below, find 10 photographs tracing the journey that brought Mullally here — from her early years in the Church to the day her appointment was announced and the moment she took her place in St Augustine's Chair, the first woman in nearly 15 centuries to do so.

A decade before she made history as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally — then Bishop of Crediton — stood outside Canterbury Cathedral on 22 July 2015 alongside the then-Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the newly consecrated Rachel Treweek, the first woman appointed to lead a Church of England diocese.

Dame Sarah Mullally photographed in The Corona Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral on 3 October 2025, shortly after the announcement of her appointment as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury. Behind her, the chapel's ancient stained glass windows have looked down on 105 archbishops before her — all of them men.

Just days before she legally took up her role on 28 January 2026, Mullally joined King Charles III for Sunday service at St Peter's Church on the Sandringham Estate, where she preached the sermon — a quietly personal moment between the new Archbishop of Canterbury designate and the monarch whose mandate would later be read aloud at her installation ceremony.

Mullally at St Paul's Cathedral on 28 January 2026, the day she was formally confirmed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury — the very building where, 25 years earlier, she had taken her first steps as an ordained priest, and where her 87-mile pilgrimage to Canterbury would later begin.

Her gold robes catching the morning air as she strode through the Palace Gate on 25 March 2026, Mullally arrived at Canterbury Cathedral to begin the ceremony that would formally install her as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury. More than 2,000 guests already inside, including William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and more.

Draped in gold and kneeling on the floor of Canterbury Cathedral on 25 March 2026, Mullally renewed her vows before the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev. Dr. David Monteith, and Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell — a moment of quiet submission that, within minutes, gave way to her enthronement as the most senior cleric in the Church of England.

A sea of red and white robes lined the nave of Canterbury Cathedral as Mullally stood at its heart on 25 March 2026, the ancient space filled with clergy from across the Anglican Communion gathered to witness a moment the Church had never seen in nearly 15 centuries of history.

Robed in gold and clutching her pastoral staff, Mullally stood in St Augustine's Chair — a seat that has held 105 archbishops before her, none of them a woman — as Dean Monteith took her hand during the enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral on 25 March 2026, the congregation packed in behind her as far as the eye could see.

Seated in St Augustine's Chair at the moment her enthronement was complete, Mullally's expression said everything the ceremony had spent two hours building toward — the broad, unguarded smile of a former NHS nurse who had just become the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide.

Hands resting calmly in her lap, Mullally sat in the ancient marble seat of St Augustine's Chair on 25 March 2026 — the first woman in nearly 15 centuries of history to occupy it — as the clergy gathered around her broke into applause, the sound of it rising through the full length of Canterbury Cathedral.