Canterbury Fails

When it was announced in October that the next archbishop of Canterbury would be a woman with progressive views on homosexuality and abortion, social media erupted with a combination of outrage, congratulations, derision, and triumph. A few days later, an even noisier eruption was caused by the news of subway-style graffiti plastered over Canterbury Cathedral, which prompted even the vice president of the United States to express disgust. The consensus among the loudest Christian voices on X was that the most ancient see in England had been desecrated: spiritually, by its impending occupation by Dame Sarah Mullally, a former nursing administrator fast-tracked into the post of bishop of London by her public-sector allies; and physically, by the graffiti “workshopped” in consultation with “Punjabi, black and brown diaspora, neurodivergent, and LGBTQIA+ groups.”