This past Sunday found me – as it probably did many other churchwardens – gloomily wondering whether we could afford to refill the oil tank again this winter, and whether the diocese would even soon order us to tear it out in pursuit of Net Zero.
The problems that the Church of England faces – from oil-tanks upwards – are legion, and it is difficult not to ask whether Sarah Mullally is the right person to deal with them. The root issue is Dame Sarah’s past experience.
Undoubtedly, she has a career of great attainment. She was the youngest person to be chief nursing officer and director of patient experience for NHS England, amongst other achievements.
However, she has spent much longer in these elevated and bureaucratic positions (whether as NHS director or bishop) than in ordinary parish ministry, where the real potential and vitality of church life subsists.
That she has exercised herself more in great matters than the travails of ordinary ministry is likely to skew her approach to dealing with the challenges that the Church of England now faces.
Conversations with churchgoers nationwide generally show that the greatest concerns on the ground are not same-sex marriage, nor whether conservative African Anglican churches will accept her leadership as the first female Archbishop.
It is not even the lingering questions about her handling of safeguarding issues.
The concerns are much more immediate. The first is the shortage of clergy. One vicar might be rushing between a dozen parishes, exhausted and unable to give the pastoral care or evangelise as they mean to.
Lay people are being called upon to give ever more money, and to do more of the work that clergy should ordinarily be doing, as volunteers. It seems ever harder to get actual help for ordinary endeavours, such as setting up choirs.
Many fear that the Church is getting caught up in modish political causes detached from its fundamental mission of preaching the gospel.
These include its apparent predilection for Critical Race Theory, with large sums being spent on posts such as that of “head of racial justice priority”.
It also includes its support for Project Spire: the payment of £100m as reparations in all but name for the Church’s alleged involvement in the slave trade. Such things give the appearance of moral conduct, but in fact serve to undermine the Church’s stewardship of its cultural and material inheritance.
Many of these problems were exacerbated by the managerial turn the Church hierarchy took under the previous Archbishop, Justin Welby (who similarly spent longer in executive positions than as a parish priest). It is difficult to see Dame Sarah, coming from a similar managerial and bureaucratic background, wanting to change course.
So far, the signs are not encouraging. It is difficult to find any indication that she will use her influence to grapple with the way that the Church Commissioners deploy their wealth, to make sure that parish ministry is properly funded.
She has also declined to retreat from the commitment to making the Project Spire payment: an action which is likely to cause a considerable backlash and damage the Church’s finances as parishioners withhold donations in protest.
This age is one of great spiritual yearning. Many, especially the young, are dissatisfied with our superficial consumerist culture, and are seeking something more profound and authentic. Some are even returning to church in what has been termed a “Quiet Revival”.
In this, the Church has a great opportunity for evangelism.
However, to take advantage of this opportunity, the Church needs not only more clergy on the ground to develop relationships with those looking for spiritual sustenance, but also a greater theological and intellectual vitality, with an emphasis on preaching and a reconnection with the Anglican cultural inheritance.
Dame Sarah has promised that she wishes to lead with “calmness, consistency and compassion”, but it is difficult to see whether she has a greater vision that will rise to the challenges of the current unhappy era.
Scripture has endless examples of God calling unlikely people to fulfil near impossible tasks: Moses to lead the Israelites of out Egypt, David to slay Goliath, St Paul to preach the gospel.
It may be that Dame Sarah will follow their example. We must pray for her that she, like them, will succeed.