All posts tagged: Church Of England

What the Declaration of Independence does – and doesn’t – say about God

What the Declaration of Independence does – and doesn’t – say about God

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — On the Fourth of July 1776, the congressional delegates in Philadelphia adopted the Declaration of Independence, then ordered that it be widely “proclaimed.” Couriers carried the printed version by stagecoach and horseback to every colony, where officials posted it and newspapers circulated it. But the declaration was also meant to be read aloud. Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft has marks signaling where the reader should pause briefly, or take a longer pause. And there were ceremonial public readings: first in Philadelphia and then in town squares, courthouses, churches and taverns up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Not everyone listening would have agreed with the declaration, and religion was one dividing point. Loyalists who sided with England and the official Church of England dissented on both spiritual and political grounds. Two-thirds of its ministers left for England after the Revolution began. Members of the historic pacifist churches like the Quakers, the Mennonites and the Brethren had tough choices to make after hearing the declaration’s call to arms. Even some who clearly sided with the …

Canterbury archbishop to visit pope, a milestone for churches split on women clergy

Canterbury archbishop to visit pope, a milestone for churches split on women clergy

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally will travel to Rome this weekend to meet Pope Leo XIV — a visit she calls a pilgrimage, akin to the one she took to prepare for her installation at Canterbury. Her four-day visit, which will include an audience with the pope at the Vatican on Monday morning (April 27), will follow in the footsteps of countless other pilgrims when she visits the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. It will also follow past archbishops of Canterbury who have traveled to see the pope since 1966, encounters that reinvented ecumenical relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England, as well as the wider Anglican Communion. But what will be remarkable about this visit is the optics: the sight of Mullally, the first woman archbishop of Canterbury, standing shoulder to shoulder and kneeling in prayer with the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, which still maintains a male-only priesthood. All the signs are that there will be undoubted warmth between the two church leaders. Three …

Cancer nurse turned archbishop celebrates election as first woman to lead Church of England

Cancer nurse turned archbishop celebrates election as first woman to lead Church of England

Published by Sam Flores

CANTERBURY, England (AP) — The new archbishop of Canterbury knocked three times on the doors of the city’s great cathedral on Wednesday, ceremonially demanding to be allowed inside in a tradition laid down over centuries by each new leader of the Church of England. But this time, for the first time ever, a woman came knocking. And the doors were opened. Sarah Mullally, a former cancer nurse who became a priest at the age of 40, walked into the cathedral to celebrate her historic election as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury since the post was created more than 1,400 years ago. Although 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 U.S., that together have more than 100 million members. “We walk with God – trusting that God walks with us,’’ Mullally said in her first …

How a network of ordained women got Sarah Mullally to Canterbury

How a network of ordained women got Sarah Mullally to Canterbury

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON (RNS) — When Sarah Mullally is installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday (March 25), it will be an extraordinary occasion not only for the most obvious reason that she is the first woman ever to lead the Church of England and serve as convener of the Anglican Communion: As a former chief nurse of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, Mullally is also the first archbishop of Canterbury to have led a major public agency in the country. In the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent on Wednesday, along with royals, politicians, clergy from around the world and schoolchildren, will be representatives from the NHS, testifying to Mullally’s accomplishments before she was ordained in 2002. In another first, at least in recent memory, she took part in a pilgrimage, walking the 87 miles from St Paul’s Cathedral in her London diocese, where she has been bishop since 2018, to Canterbury. But it is Mullally’s gender that will be the most remarked upon part of her ascent, from her birth in Woking, …

Sarah Mullally lays out agenda in first major speech as archbishop of Canterbury

Sarah Mullally lays out agenda in first major speech as archbishop of Canterbury

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The new archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, made her first presidential address to the Church of England’s governing body Tuesday (Feb. 10) with a promise to make a major priority of protecting church members from sexual abuse — the issue that caused the downfall of her predecessor, Justin Welby. The church, she said, had “too often failed to recognize or take seriously the abuse of power in all its forms,” and in the past it had fallen “tragically short” on accountability. Mullally, who in October became the first woman appointed to head of the Church of England, promised: “I am committed to bringing an approach of seriousness and focused direction to all matters relating to safeguarding in all contexts in the church. This approach must be trauma-informed. Put victims and survivors at the heart of all we do and be committed to proper independence.” The former chief nurse of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service before being ordained, the archbishop served notice that she would focus on putting procedures in place. “Robust and …