Who might be the next archbishop of Canterbury?
The PA news agency takes a look at some of the names who could be in the running.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Church of England is on the search for the 106th archbishop of Canterbury.
The role had been held for more than a decade by Justin Welby, until his resignation over failures in handling a church abuse scandal.
There are more than 100 bishops in the Church of England, including 42 diocesan bishops.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell appeared to rule himself out last year, and has since faced calls to resign over perceived failures in his handling of a separate abuse case.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at some of the names who could be in the running.
– Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London
The former nurse was the youngest person to be appointed chief nursing officer for England in 1999.
She sits in the House of Lords and was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in March 2018.
She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2005 for her contribution to nursing and midwifery.
She is married with two children and is a novice potter.
She is taking on the metropolitan functions usually held by the archbishop of Canterbury in the interim period while the post is vacant.
– Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford
Born in Iran, Bishop Guli’s family fled in the wake of the Iranian revolution in 1980, when she was just a teenager.
Her brother Bahram was murdered in the revolution, and she previously spoke about how it affected her family.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: “We’ve spent a lifetime coming to terms with it. In a sense, it was his sacrifice that brought us here. I don’t think my mum and my sister and I would have left if we hadn’t had a very good reason to.
“So he gave us the gift of a chance of a new life in this country.”
She has been Bishop of Chelmsford since April 2021 and is the lead bishop for housing for the Church of England.
She is married with three children.
– Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich
The ecologist and keen beekeeper is the church’s lead bishop on the environment.
He became the 72nd Bishop of Norwich in June 2019 and is patron or president of more than 25 charities.
He is married with two children.
– Michael Beasley, Bishop of Bath and Wells
The former epidemiologist was a member of the Church of England’s Covid task force during the pandemic.
He was also part of efforts by Unicef and the NHS to launch vaccinaid.org which raised more than £10 million in support of vaccination for low-income countries.
He is married and became the 80th Bishop of Bath and Wells in 2022.
– Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester
Born in Indonesia, he studied chemistry at the University of Sheffield and then worked with the Crown Prosecution Service.
He became the seventh Bishop of Leicester in 2016.
As well as being a supporter of Leicester City and Leicester Tigers, his interests are said to include music and hill walking.
He is married and at one stage worked in Guinea in West Africa with the local church alongside his wife.
– Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover
Born in Jamaica, she trained for ordination at Queens Theological College and was ordained a deacon in 1991 and a priest in 1994.
Bishop Rose was a priest in Hackney, London, for almost 17 years, and in 2007 she was appointed as a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II.
She became the first woman appointed to the position of the 79th Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2010.
She was announced in 2019 as the Bishop of Dover, becoming the Church of England’s first black female bishop.
Her husband Kenneth is a prison chaplain and they have three children.
Bishop Rose will take on diocesan functions usually held by the archbishop of Canterbury while the post is vacant.
– Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle
Ordained into the Church of England in 2005 as deacon in the Diocese of Oxford, she became a priest the following year – following in her own father’s footsteps as he was also a priest in the Church.
Born in Edinburgh, she spent her early years living in the Scottish Borders before moving with her family to Sunderland.
She served for a time in New Zealand before being announced as Bishop of Ripon in 2017, and she became Bishop of Newcastle following a service of inauguration at Newcastle Cathedral in April 2023.
She has been outspoken regarding the Church’s safeguarding, becoming the only bishop to call publicly for Mr Welby’s resignation and also criticising Mr Cottrell over his handling of abuse in the church.