6 April 2026

Sarah Mullaly made history recently by becoming the first woman to be enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury. She had already reached the top of the nursing profession and now she celebrated this extraordinary calling.

The service took place on the Feast of the Annunciation and the new Archbishop took as the text for her sermon the words which the angel addressed to Mary to reassure her. ‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’

She remembered her teenage self ‘who put her faith in God and made a commitment to follow Jesus’ adding ‘I could never have imagined the future that lay ahead and certainly not the ministry to which I am called.’

Mullaly has broken the stained-glass ceiling in the Church of England. It was Dr. Alison Elliot who broke it in the Church of Scotland. As an ordained elder, she became the first woman to be Moderator of the General Assembly in 2004.

And before that, who was the first woman to be ordained as an elder within the Kirk on 19 June 1966, sixty years ago this summer? And who was the first woman to preach in a kirk pulpit when permission was granted in 1949?

And almost one hundred and forty years ago  women were commissioned as deaconesses within the Church of Scotland. Griselle Baillie was the first in 1888, a founding  member of the Guild and its first President.

And still the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have yet to consider seriously the ministry of women and ordain its first female deacon. But as the angel and the Archbishop said, ‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’

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