Elections to leading role for former West bishop

DAME Sarah Mullally, former Bishop of Crediton, has been formally elected as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, in another step in the lengthy and centuries-old process towards becoming the Church of England’s top bishop.

- AINE FOX

Archbishop of Canterbury-designate Dame Sarah Mullally

(Gareth Fuller)

She was officially named in October as the next person to take the leading role, making history by becoming the first woman to do so.

Dame Sarah will remain Bishop of London until a ceremony known as the Confirmation of Election, which will take place at St Paul's Cathedral on January 28 next year.

Yesterday, a centuries-old ceremony, which Dame Sarah did not attend, took place at Canterbury Cathedral to see her formally elected.

She was chosen earlier this year by a committee known as the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), chaired by a former MI5 director and made up of religious and lay members of the Church and wider Anglican Communion who had to agree to a new archbishop by a two-thirds majority.