Former nurse Sarah Mullally was officially confirmed Wednesday as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to head the Church of England, the mother church of the 85-million-strong global Anglican communion. At a historic service at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, Mullally, 63, legally took up the position ahead of her formal installation—or enthronement—at Canterbury Cathedral on March 25. Mullally will begin her public ministry and full programme of public engagements after that date, according to the church. The Church of England became Britain’s state establishment church following King Henry VIII’s split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s. The British monarch is its supreme governor, while the Archbishop of Canterbury is seen as the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide.