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Bish­op of Lon­don Sarah Mul­lal­ly shat­tered a stained-glass ceil­ing Fri­day when she was an­nounced as the next Arch­bish­op of Can­ter­bury, the first time a woman has been cho­sen as the Church of Eng­land’s spir­i­tu­al leader.

Mul­lal­ly, 63, a for­mer can­cer nurse who be­came Eng­land’s youngest chief nurs­ing of­fi­cer be­fore join­ing the cler­gy, faces se­ri­ous chal­lenges in the church that in­clude di­vi­sions over the treat­ment of women and LGBTQ peo­ple. She will al­so have to con­front con­cerns that church lead­ers haven’t done enough to stamp out the sex­u­al abuse scan­dals that have dogged the church for more than a decade.

The choice of Mul­lal­ly as Arch­bish­op of Can­ter­bury-des­ig­nate marks a ma­jor mile­stone for a church that or­dained its first fe­male priests in 1994 and its first fe­male bish­op in 2015. She fol­lows 105 men who have held the role since St. Au­gus­tine be­came the first Arch­bish­op of Can­ter­bury in the year 597.