New Archbishop of Canterbury Walks to Aylesford and Faversham in Pilgrimage

Before being installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, the Rev. Sarah Mullally spent the last week walking in pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Her pilgrimage included visits to two Carmelite shrines—traditional stops for pilgrims to Canterbury—Aylesford and St Jude Shrine in Faversham. The entire trip, along the so-called “Becket Camino,” was 140km (87 miles) over one week. It started at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England. This route was to reflect Rev. Mullally’s life journey from Bishop of London to Archbishop of Cantebury.

While at Aylesford, the pilgrims received a tour, explaining the shrine’s history and its position on the traditional pilgrim route. They stopped in each of the chapels for prayer. In Faversham the pilgrims received another tour and a lesson on St. Jude as the Apostle of Hope.

As a remembrance of the visits, the archbishop gave each site a scallop shell, a symbol of Christian baptism and a traditional sign of a pilgrim.

Rev. Mullay is the first woman to hold the office. She replaces Archbishop Justin Welby who resigned in January 2025. She has been the Bishop of London since 2018, also being the first woman to hold that post. Before ordination she worked as a cancer nurse. She described nursing as “an opportunity to reflect the love of God.”

She expressed her desire for her term as Archbishop of Canterbury “to encourage the Church to continue to grow in confidence in the Gospel, to speak of the love that we find in Jesus Christ and for it to shape our actions.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior bishop in the Church of England. The position combines several roles: diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan, and primus inter pares (first among equals) among the primates of the global Anglican Communion. The Church has approximately 85 million members in 165 countries.