Dame Sarah Mullally has been installed as the 133rd bishop of London at St Paul's Cathedral – becoming the first woman to hold the post.

Bishop Mullally was invested on International Nurses Day – Florence Nightingale's birthday – in a nod to the new bishop's former career as a nurse and chief nursing officer in England.

She performed the tradition of knocking three times on the Cathedral's Great West door with her pastoral staff, a spokesman for the Diocese of London told the Press Association.

In her sermon, the bishop preached on the theme of 'being subversive for Christ', and noted that 150 years ago this week, suffragettes placed a bomb underneath the same seat upon which she had been enthroned as Bishop of London.

She also addressed challenges facing London including escalating knife crime, and made reference to historical sexual abuse within the Church.

Mullally called for a culture that 'challenges deference and the abuse of power' and for victims of abuse to be listened to.

She added: 'We need to speak up for the whole of London, to work to challenge the violence and the crime that have led mothers to clean their own children's blood from our pavements.

'Could there be a starker image or a more urgent wake-up call for all who love this city, who believe it can have an even better future?'

Mullally was bishop of Crediton after working in leading NHS hospitals in the capital including St Thomas's and the Royal Marsden. She became chief nursing officer in 1999 and was ordained as a priest three years later, and in 2005 she was made a dame in recognition of her services to nursing.

The diocese of London bucks the trend of decline in the CofE, with growing congregations though despite a diverse theological landscape it remains predominantly conservative with numerous Anglo-Catholic and evangelical parishes.

Two years ago, Mullally became the first woman bishop to lead an ordination service when she ordained four clergy, three of whom were women.

When she was appointed to Crediton she told the Daily Telegraph it was important not to obsess about empty pews. 'I think that the Church does need to take seriously the change in the Church's membership and that is important but part of that is also to recognise that there are really good examples where the church engages with individuals that isn't around the pews,' she said.