For Nothing is Impossible with God

 

A Reflection from the Bishop of Niagara
The Right Reverend Dr. Susan J.A. Bell

 

Yesterday, Archbishop Sarah Mullally was formally installed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral on this, the Feast of the Annunciation.  Archbishop Sarah is the first woman to hold the office of Archbishop of Canterbury in its 1,400-year history. The service marked the start of her public ministry in the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. More than two thousand people from across the country and around the world attended the Installation, including Bishop Susan Bell, as co-chair of the Anglican-Methodist International Coordinating Committee, and our primate, Archbishop Shane Parker. 

Following this historical moment, Bishop Susan took some time to reflect on the experience.

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“For Nothing Is Impossible With God" An early Reflection on the Installation of the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury

I was not prepared. I thought I was. I had attended great services before, had sat in Canterbury Cathedral like countless of the faithful before me and felt the weight of centuries settle around me like a cloak. But yesterday undid me, quietly and completely, in ways I am still trying to name.

Let me begin with the Africa Six. Their presence was not incidental. It was deeply intentional. To see the new Archbishop of Canterbury flanked on both sides by her episcopal sisters from the Global South - their churches vast, their faith forged in circumstances that would humble most of us — seated at the heart of an installation that the cynics had already written off as a moment of fracture was a profound experience. And yet there they were. Something in the cathedral shifted. The Communion was *not* broken. It was being re-membered:  the same, but different. And to enjoy the presence and leadership of Dean David Monteith - a gay and partnered priest-colleague leading the installation was another sign of longed-for change. These were two sure-footed corrections to the narratives of division and disaster that we often hear about the church, and they were gratefully received by those present.  

And then the children's examination. I did not expect to feel so moved by a liturgical formality, but Archbishop Sarah Mullally's answers were so simple, so undefended, so rooted in Jesus — not in institution, not in office, not even in vocation in the grand ecclesiastical sense, but in the person of Christ — that the foundation was immediately laid for something different. 

Children: “How do you come among us and with what confidence?” 

The Archbishop: “I come knowing nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified and in weakness and fear and in much trembling.”

Children: “Let us then humble ourselves before God and together seek his mercy and strength.”

And the Archbishop leaned into it. A woman who has held the hands of the dying, who trained nurses, who knows what it is to be human and afraid and held by Love — she stood there and told the truth. In a cathedral full of mitre and cope and ancient gesture, the most powerful thing present was her humility.

And the appointment itself. Let us not rush past the miracle of it. A woman. The 106th successor to Archbishop Cranmer, to Archbishop Temple, to Archbishop Runcie, to Archbishop Williams!  I do not think we have fully absorbed what has happened. It’s the kind of thing you tell your grandchildren about — not because it was merely historic, but because it was holy.

It was the Feast of the Annunciation. Mary's feast day. And all day I kept hearing her voice: nothing is impossible with God. The Annunciation hung over everything — that moment when the world pivoted, when something utterly new entered history, not through power but through willingness. A woman saying yes. The Word taking flesh. 

I do wonder if the organizers knew, quite consciously, all the emotional and theological dots they were connecting. Perhaps not entirely. But the Holy Spirit did. The service was more than the sum of its parts. Far more. 

Outside, the crowds, the cheers when her name was announced and deep, spontaneous, unorchestrated joy was the answer that echoed around that vast cathedral. I have heard those sounds at coronations, and I have heard them at football and hockey games, but yesterday the sound was different — it was the sound of people recognizing something true.

A new identity was born. Not only for an Archbishop, but for a Communion through women — their promise, their fecundity, their faithful and extraordinary ministry — something is coming to birth. We do not yet know its full shape, but the potential is remarkable. 

Undoubtedly, as our (retired) Archbishop Linda prayed so wisely and compassionately when we gathered early on the morning of the Installation with Archbishop Sarah and other women bishops, there will be expectations placed on Archbishop Sarah that are impossible to fulfill.  There will be those who project their pain and fear onto her. Yet, if she continues to find her identity in Christ, she will be able to carry this ministry with God’s help, and ours.

But now - now is the time for rejoicing.

May God who has given Archbishop Sarah this ministry, give her the grace, the strength, wisdom - and protection- to perform it. 

Thanks be to God.

 

The Right Reverend Dr. Susan Bell
Bishop of Niagara