Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London, was announced on Friday as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first time a woman has been chosen as the spiritual leader of the Church of England.

Mullally will face divisions over the treatment of women and LGBTQ people, and she will have to confront concerns that church leaders haven’t done enough to stamp out the sexual abuse scandals that have dogged the church for more than a decade.

She follows 105 men to become the first woman to lead 85 million Anglicans worldwide.

She will replace former archbishop, Justin Welby, who announced his resignation in November after an independent investigation found he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Mullally said her elevation was a "huge responsibility", but she would approach it with a sense of peace and trust in God.

"As I respond to the call of Christ to this new ministry, I do so in the same spirit of service to God and to others that has motivated me since I first came to faith as a teenager," she said in a statement.

"At every stage of that journey, through my nursing career and Christian ministry, I have learned to listen deeply – to people and to God's gentle prompting – to seek to bring people together to find hope and healing."

However, the choice has drawn criticism, with Gafcon, a grouping of conservative Anglican churches across Africa and Asia, saying the Church of England's appointment of its first female Archbishop of Canterbury showed the English arm of the church had "relinquished its authority to lead".

In a statement, the alliance said: "Today's appointment makes it clearer than ever before that Canterbury has relinquished its authority to lead. The reset of our beloved Communion is now uniquely in the hands of Gafcon, and we are ready to take the lead." (Agencies)