She Goes Anyway

What's happening

On March 25, Sarah Mullally will be installed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to lead the global Anglican Communion in its nearly 500-year history. The Communion, which traces its roots to Henry VIII's break with Rome, encompasses 85 million members worldwide, including the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Mullally served as Bishop of London and, before entering ministry, worked as an oncology nurse. She succeeds Justin Welby, who resigned amid a sexual abuse scandal involving John Smyth, who abused more than 100 boys over decades.

The appointment has deepened existing fractures. Several conservative provinces, particularly in Africa, have threatened to break away over women's ordination and LGBTQ inclusion. The Church of England only began ordaining women as priests in 1994 and permitted women bishops in 2014.

The history is longer than the institution's comfort with it. In 1974, eleven women were ordained in Philadelphia in defiance of church law. Carter Heyward, one of those eleven, reflected: "You can be respectful and kind to the people who oppose you. But you do not need to permit them to stop you."

The Right Rev. Paula Clark, Bishop of Chicago, offered a more current testimony: "Right now, there are parishes in the Diocese of Chicago where I am unwelcome because I'm a woman. I go anyway."

What the text says

The apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians with a clarity that later generations would spend centuries qualifying:

Galatians 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This verse has been used to argue for and against women's ordination, which tells us something about how Scripture functions in institutional debates. The text itself is unambiguous. The question has always been whether the church means it.

The book of Judges offers a narrative rather than a proposition. Deborah led Israel as judge and prophet during a period when, as the text repeatedly notes, male leadership had failed:

Judges 4:4-54Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time.5She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

Deborah did not seek permission. The text does not record anyone granting it. She sat under her palm tree and the people came to her for judgment. Her authority was recognized because it was exercised. The institution caught up later.

The context of Mullally's appointment matters theologically. She follows a leader who resigned because the institution he led failed to protect children from a predator. The Communion is choosing a different kind of leadership after being broken by the old kind. This is a pattern Scripture recognizes: the stone the builders rejected.

The reflection

Rev. Shannon Page watched the proceedings and thought of her two-year-old daughter: "I wonder if she's also looking at the women, seeing herself, her stories, in this space."

That sentence contains the entire argument. Representation is not symbolism. It is a child learning what is possible by seeing what is actual.

Bishop Clark's testimony is the sharper edge. She is unwelcome in some of her own parishes. She goes anyway. This is a theological claim: that a calling confirmed by the church does not require the permission of every member to be valid.

Mullally takes the Canterbury chair in a communion that is fracturing over whether she should sit in it. The chair does not seem troubled.