LSBU alumna and former Governor appointed as Bishop
The Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, who studied at LSBU and sat on the Board of Governors for ten years, is to be the next Bishop of Crediton, ExeterThe Revd Dame Sarah Mullally is the fourth woman bishop to be appointed by the Church of England, and the first in the South West.
A former nurse, Dame Sarah had a distinguished service in the NHS before ordination, culminating in her appointment as the government's Chief Nursing Officer for England in 1999, when she was the youngest person to be appointed to the post.
Dame Sarah started her nursing career at what was then the South Bank Polytechnic in 1980 and became a Registered General Nurse with a BSc (Hons) in Nursing Studies. She returned again in 1990 and obtained an MSc in Interprofessional Health and Welfare Studies including a distinction in research.
She served as an independent Governor for LSBU from 2005 until her retirement from the board in early 2015.
Ordained in 2001, Dame Sarah served her curacy in St Saviour's Battersea Fields, initially as a self-supporting minister. She left her post as Chief Nursing Officer in 2004 to take up full time ministry becoming a Team Rector in Sutton, Surrey in 2006. In 2012 she was installed as Canon Treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral.
She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2005 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to nursing and midwifery.
The Revd Dame Sarah Mullally said: "Throughout my life, as both a nurse and a priest, I have experienced God's enduing love and I hope as Bishop to be able to share that love with others.
"In my future ministry in the Diocese of Exeter I hope to encourage and enable Christians to grow in their faith, to share that faith with confidence and to serve the people of Devon with joy."
She will be consecrated as Bishop of Crediton in Canterbury Cathedral in July, alongside the first woman to be appointed as a diocesan bishop, the Venerable Rachel Treweek, who is to be Bishop of Gloucester.