“I have a strongly-rooted faith that my gender and my sexuality is part of who I am and part of what God created, and that therefore is part of what I bring to my ministry.”
The recent election of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullaly, was front-page news, as she became the first ever woman to hold the post. But the fact that she was beaten to the accolade of being the first female Archbishop in the UK is less well known. The election of the Archbishop of Wales, Cherry Vann, in July 2025 placed her name in the history books, not only as the first woman to be elected as Archbishop in the UK, but the first woman in the global Anglican Church to be in a civil partnership with a woman. Cherwell sat down for a conversation with the Archbishop of Wales, who will be officially ‘enthroned’ on 8th November 2025, to talk about the issues surrounding her appointment, her education, her ministry, and the Church’s approach to politics.
With Oxford’s rich choral and chapel traditions, the Archbishop Cherry understands the depth that music can bring out of buildings made for worship. She seems to wisely carry forward her experiences from her past into her ministry, and understands the impact that Oxford’s chapels can have – as welfare facilitators and for artistic expression. “Music speaks to the heart. You don’t have to analyse it or explain it. It just gets you. It engages emotions and the deep worlds of spirituality in often surprising and unexpected ways. It can get to you in a way that rational thought can actually keep at bay.”
The Archbishop’s story, though, is much more complex than simply where she studied – it is, in fact, layered with complications about who she is as a person. Unsurprisingly, her election has been met with discussion, opposition and division. The Church of Nigeria has formally severed ties with the Anglican Province of Wales as a result: “We must not allow culture or modern wisdom to dilute the authority of Scripture. These trends must be resisted,” Archbishop Ndukuba, the head of the Nigerian Church, has said in response to the election.
Given the Church’s fraught history with ‘modern’ ideals, this strong reaction does not seem startling. But her approach to this misalignment is one of maturity and trust. She told Cherwell: “The Church in Wales knew as well as I did that electing me was going to cause issues. But, when God calls, then you don’t say no, and they discerned that. I discerned that. And here I am.”
The Archbishop Cherry Vann admits that the variety of countries that Anglicanism represents are so diverse that it is often very difficult for people to come to terms with such broad differences. She explained how it was the context of the Church in Wales that made her election possible. The Nigerian church, alongside other churches across the world, have to fight for their credibility, which is not the case for Anglicanism in the UK. Her profound hope is that they are able to come to terms with their differences, and find relation within their shared humanity: “These people have never met me. They don’t know my ministry, my history, they don’t know what I’ve brought to the diocese, what difference I’ve made. They just focus on one thing.”
Despite her realisation that these differences might never be resolved, she is determined to not let that limit the impact of her election: “My primary drive at the heart of my ministry is to reach out to those on the margins and those who struggle with the issues that I seem to be a conductor, a lightning rod for. Not to stay apart, but actually to go towards and to try and establish a relationship where we can actually talk.”
Archbishop Cherry’s sexuality seems to come between people’s understanding of God’s word and their understanding of her humanity. But the levels of tolerance do not just vary across seas. The Church in Wales has a more progressive stance than the Church of England, allowing blessings for same-sex couples since 2021 and with discussions in progress on same-sex marriage in church. Nonetheless, the appointment of a lesbian Archbishop marks an historic milestone. Its impact on attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community remains to be seen, but for those long forced to navigate the divide between sexuality and faith, this is a powerful step toward visibility and belonging within the Church.
“It’s been amazing for them to see somebody like me in this role. It’s very empowering and hopeful and inspiring for them and that’s great. I think for the church, it’s signalled something really quite remarkable that it’s been able to happen at all. I don’t think you can underestimate the impact that has.”
But the Archbishop of Wales is no stranger to dealing with disapproval from her colleagues. In fact, dealing with opposition is a cornerstone of her journey through priesthood. Archbishop Cherry was among the first five women to be ordained priest in the Manchester diocese in 1994, the first year of women’s ordination. In 2008, she became the first woman to become a senior priest in the diocese of Manchester, being elected Archdeacon of Rochdale, and, in 2019, she became the third woman in the history of the Church in Wales to serve as Bishop.
Being among the pioneering women at the front of the battle for women’s leadership in the Church, Archbishop Cherry said that her experience with prejudice and dissent in her early ministry. She was uncertain whether she’d be able to become an ordained priest at the start of her training in 1986, but nevertheless she maintained a posture of confidence that her call would find fulfillment in whatever way possible. “I suppose it cements your sense of call, because you don’t take anything for granted. It’s part of the process of learning to trust, that God knew what God was doing.”
Yet her faith did not erase the uncertainty. She recalled the resistance she encountered in the early years of her ministry, especially from male priests she needed to persuade that this was a step forward for the Church. A defining moment in that experience, she said, was a clergy conference in the Diocese of Manchester.
The Archbishop went on to describe the ways in which male colleagues and priests protested the ordination of women by not engaging and not attending Eucharist at the conference. “It just felt really awful and not Christian – not at all what we should be doing. So there was one occasion I went and sat with them at the meal that night. I think it quite amused them. It was awkward, but I felt it was important to just reach out.”
After the conference, she was motivated to contact those in opposition, and created a group of four men opposed to women’s ordination and four women priests. They met three times a year, and would eat, pray and discuss together. After 20 years of respectful conversation, they’d become “really good friends… it’s been one of the most profound things in shaping me.”
The Archbishop of Wales conveyed that modelling the faith and people’s equality within the church family was vital in respecting each other within church leadership: “I saw that when you work hard at loving somebody who is vehemently opposed to your ministry and you try and work with that, then something quite beautiful can come out of it.”
Women, and their role in church leadership, has so often been underestimated. The Archbishop told Cherwell: “Having been to India and to Africa, it’s made me realise how often women are the glue that hold families together and hold communities together. And I think that’s something important that women bring – this kind of innate desire to keep people together as a family.”
Speaking to Cherwell, the Archbishop reflected on how her early ministry and pioneering has prepared her for the backlash she faces now: “Clearly you can’t hide the fact that you’re a woman. Whereas I spent most of my life in the Church of England hiding the fact that I was gay. I know a lot of other people do hide it out of fear. But coming to Wales has just completely shifted that for me because I was told that it wasn’t an issue, and that I would be welcome.”
Archbishop Cherry linked this to the way in which Wales might feel side-lined and a minority in relation to England, which helps its culture relate to, and be sympathetic towards, other people on the margins, and how she feels welcome to visit parishes with her partner, Wendy. “It says something really quite special about Wales.”
But her sexuality is a new fight, one that Archbishop Cherry realises is a harder issue for people to come to terms with than her gender. She approaches building bridges with those opposed by inhabiting the role as a leader, not a campaigner. Modelling the faith, rather than pushing an agenda is important to her, especially due to the weaponisation of scripture: “I think the role of the Bible and what people perceive is said in the Bible can be used in a way that it couldn’t be used with women. Many people in my diocese are fine, but even those who do struggle I am able to maintain a relationship with.”
Lack of unity is not a problem that is restricted to the church, but is at play in our politics too. ‘Belonging’ is a word that seems obsolete to many, and so Cherwell asked the Archbishop of Wales to comment on the rise of right-wing politics, and the Church’s approach towards divisive rhetoric. She spoke about the Church having a story to tell about inclusion and God’s love for everybody, which needs to be told louder and more often. People are dissatisfied and feel excluded by politicians, governments and social norms, and they look for somewhere to give them a voice: “I think Nigel Farage has played clever on that and has accumulated all the discontented people and actually given voice to their anger. But he’s clearly got momentum, and I think everybody’s running scared as to how to counter it.”
The Archbishop emphasised that we need to create a space where everyone feels they have agency and value, and to work with governments to ensure their work doesn’t exacerbate divides, but is actually working for those who feel excluded: “I think we have to be very clear that a society that tolerates exclusion, never mind extremism, is a divided society and therefore, by nature is an unhealthy society… we have to speak out. And I think we’ve been too timid and apologetic.”
But this is not to say that the Church is without its own issues. Alongside major safeguarding issues in the past, Archbishop Andrew John, whose hurried retirement resulted in the appointment of Archbishop Cherry Vann, was prompted to step down from the role. This was due to serious concerns regarding safeguarding failures, inappropriate conduct and weak financial controls at Bangor Cathedral.
Such stories of corruption and misuse of power are stories that we are all too familiar with hearing from the Church. Coming out of this murky haze, Archbishop Cherry Vann is faced with a culture of mistrust perpetuated by the abuse of power that her predecessors have created – a hard position to step into after such serious concerns. Leadership coming out of a break of trust is often a make-or-break moment within an institution, and so her early approach to her new role is vital. She hopes to create a communion where people can come together, voice their concerns, challenge each other’s beliefs, and re-build a relationship between all areas of ministry. She said that she wants to model this culture, because “I think that’s what leaders do. They model a culture, a way of behaving, a way of responding, a way of being, and people notice that. And it trickles down. So I hope to model something quite different, something that’s more open, responsive, accountable.”
The Archbishop said how being open about questions and concerns means that they can be addressed, which is impossible if they are kept secret. Silencing people has caused problems in the past. She said that she is trying to be honest and open, modelling a culture in order to change it. This will take a long time, but people need to be able to identify problems and behaviours that are wrong. “I think we need to find a way of coming together so that we can build those relationships, have open and honest conversations and hopefully agree on behaviours that are going to model something that’s a bit more Christ-like… It might inspire more trust, might show us as being more accountable, and the importance of having that openness and transparency in all we do.”
Clearly, Archbishop Cherry Vann’s experience throughout her ministry has prepared her for this new role – one that she has stepped into with confidence and clarity on what needs to change. At a time in history where church attendance is still declining, but where research is showing there is an increasing interest in faith in the UK, openness and honesty is vital in order to uphold the Church’s structures and the positivity that it puts into the world. This election has changed the history of Christianity altogether, and brings hope for the building of a safer, healthier and more united church for the future.
“Whether you like it or not, God welcomes everybody and you just have to get used to that idea, and find a way of living out that love, that care, that compassion, that respect that we believe God holds all his children in.”
