Archbishop Sarah: A Biography with Andrew Atherstone

9 snips

Mar 26, 2026

Andrew Atherstone, Oxford professor and biographer of senior Anglican leaders, discusses Archbishop Sarah Mullally. He explores her rise as a trailblazer, how nursing and St. Stephen’s shaped her pastoral leadership, themes from her sermons about welcome and outsiders, her role in Living in Love and Faith, and how she might navigate safeguarding, Communion tensions, and public social issues.

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ANECDOTE

South Lambeth Church Formed Her Leadership

St Stephen's South Lambeth shaped Mullally with a socially mixed, missional evangelical culture that she stayed in for 21 years.
The church mixed Caribbean and West African members, students and working-class locals, and nurtured her long-term commitment from age 18 to 39.

INSIGHT

Nursing Trained Her For Servant Leadership

Her twenty-year nursing career taught servant leadership, calmness, and high-level administration that she brings to episcopal office.
She moved from ward nurse to executive and Whitehall roles, managing budgets, staff, and learning measured public communication.

INSIGHT

Calm Consistent Compassion As Her Governing Ethos

Mullally's stated episcopal priorities are calmness, consistency, and compassion rather than bold reform projects.
She signalled this in her General Synod presidential address and favours steady administration over sweeping initiatives.

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Who is Archbishop Sarah Mullally? And what might we expect from her ministry?

Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Pope Gregory in 597 on mission to re-evangelize Britain and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Incase you haven’t heard, Anglicans have made world news for electing as the 106^th Archbishop of Canterbury the first woman to serve in the role, former Bishop of London, the Most Rev. Sarah Mullally.

Archbishop Sarah is coming into the role at a time of many tensions and possible changes within the Anglican Communion, including what the ABC's role should actually be and what shape the church might take under the continued pressures of disagreement over what it means to be faithful to the gospel today.

Our editor in chief, the Rev. Dr. Mark Michael, sat down with Dr. Andrew Atherstone, who has just published the definitive biography of Archbishop Sarah called (very appropriately) Archbishop Sarah Mullally: A Biography.

They talk about:

Why she was the “dark horse” of the ABC race the bookies didn’t initially bet on.
Why Andrew calls her a “trailblazer” and a “pioneer.”
How 20 years in a south-side evangelical church and a 20-year career as a nurse shape her leadership.
What we learn from a collection of her parish sermons.
And how we might anticipate her role in the Anglican Communion’s approach to euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and other divisive issues.

Andrew is Professor of Modern Anglicanism at the University of Oxford, and Tutorial Fellow and Latimer Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He is a prolific writer and biographer of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

From this episode:

Archbishop Sarah’s website

Archbishop Sarah Mullally: A Biography by Andrew Atherstone

Archbishop Justin Welby: Risk Taker and Reconciler by Andrew Atherstone

Ecclesiastical History of the English People and other books by the Venerable Bede

Living in Love and Faith process

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