THERE was no white smoke above Lambeth Palace, no cheering crowds, no balcony appearance, and no shout of “Habemus archiepiscopus!”
Instead, there was a walk up the aisle of Canterbury Cathedral to polite clapping from a carefully selected audience of fewer than a hundred people. With that, the Church of England had appointed its first woman archbishop in more than 1400 years.
Afterwards, members of the press who had applied in advance were given ten-minute interview slots with Sarah Mullally. But not all of them.
Cathy go home
One might expect the C of E to feel indebted to Channel 4 news reporter Cathy Newman for exposing its most prolific abuser, John Smyth QC. However, she was also in large part responsible for the defenestration of the previous archbishop thanks to her relentless exposure of his failings in the case. Newman’s reward was to have her request for an interview turned down.
Anyone who thought the appointment of Mullally might signal a truce with the media was soon put right by the Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who will serve as Mullally’s deputy in Canterbury diocese.
In an interview for Channel 4’s Amelia Jenne, she issued a warning: “You as the media have a choice as to whether or not you are going to keep beating the clergy, the bishops, the archbishops, over the head. Or whether you are going to say ‘There is a new chapter, and we’re going to see what happens.'”
Given the context, the accusation that the church was being beaten was curious.
Winchester trifle
As a sop, Newman was allowed to interview the Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, for her Times Radio programme. He had clearly been briefed to say that Mullally had been appointed entirely on merit – thereby answering a question that Newman hadn’t asked.
When asked whether he was confident his new boss would arrive in office without concerns about her past handling of safeguarding failures, the bishop would only say he was confident she takes safeguarding extremely seriously. When she pressed the point, a media officer intervened to stop the interview.
Read it all in Private Eye