“All flourishing is mutual.”
~Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Most Reverend Sarah Mullally became the new Archbishop of Canterbury just a few weeks ago. She is the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to ever lead the Church of England. Mullally is what we would call in our tradition a “second-career pastor.” In her previous career, she was a cancer nurse and even rose in the ranks to Chief Nursing Officer of England in the Department of Health before discerning a call to ministry. By all accounts, the Archbishop of Canterbury is a remarkable person and her confirmation is historic.

I give the Most Reverend Sarah Mullally credit for immediately naming her experiences: “It is fair to say that I have, both in my secular role, as well as in the Church, experienced misogyny at times . . . I’m conscious that being in this role, it’s important for me to speak of it [misogyny], because there are some that don’t necessarily have the status or power of this role, and feel more hesitant to do it. I commit myself to making an environment where all people can flourish and which is safer for all.”*  It is also telling that the Church of England finally confirmed a clergywoman after the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Justin Welby, resigned over his handling of a sex abuse scandal.

Clergywomen have long spoken about stained glass ceilings—those invisible barriers that exist within religious traditions.  Though there’s another phenomenon—the stained glass cliff.  My UCC colleague Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath wrote about this some years ago, “The research on this is very clear: women are more likely to rise to positions of leadership and authority in times of crisis or conflict. It’s seen as a ‘nothing to lose’ phenomenon. ‘We have nothing to lose, so might as well hire a woman.’ We often follow charismatic or well-liked men who were behaving egregiously badly, and we often don’t have clarity on how deeply broken the system really is until we’ve already said yes. Women are held to a different standard (especially when we are the first). We have broken the stained glass ceiling, so we are expected to be exceptional, extraordinary even. We are expected to resolve conflicts, and clean up messes we did not make in half the time it took the men who preceded us to make them. We are expected to effortlessly juggle leadership (but not too much), nurturing (but not be too soft), and family (but without asking for too much time) without complaint.”*

On the one hand, I am thrilled that a woman is now at the helm of the Church of England!
On the other hand, I found myself already fretting for her!
This week I wanted to share some of this background information in case you didn’t know it before.
I am reminded of wisdom shared by Robin Wall Kimmerer, “All flourishing is mutual.”
I pray that the Church is indeed a place where all people can flourish.

Love,
Pastor Lauren

* Aleem Maqbool, “I will speak out on misogyny, first female Archbishop of Canterbury says” BBC, January 28, 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7v0948vm9go

*Heidi Carrington Heath, “The Stained Glass Cliff,” Young Clergy Women International, July 16, 2019, https://youngclergywomen.org/the-stained-glass-cliff/

Photo by Ilse Orsel on Unsplash

Thursday Thoughts 2/12/26