On the feast day of the Bible’s most radical woman, Mary Magdalene, the Church of England consecrated its most senior female bishop – set to be the first to enter the House of Lords – with the Venerable Rachel Treweek urged to be as subversive as Jesus’s most prominent female follower.

Treweek and her fellow new bishop, the Rev Canon Dame Sarah Mullally, are the first women to be consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev Justin Welby, at the city’s historic cathedral. Set to join the House of Lords in early autumn, Treweek will become the bishop of Gloucester and run the diocese in a role that is just one rank below archbishop.

But after a service in which she was counselled by the bishop of Stepney, the Right Rev Adrian Newman, to shake up a “middle-aged white male” role, Treweek told the Guardian that she hoped to become the new normal.

“I don’t feel like a pioneer! It just so happens that I am pioneer in this, but so are lots of men and women been pioneers throughout history,” she said. “I am so hugely grateful for those who fought for this day, for women to be consecrated and serve Jesus as they’ve been called.

“I hope, more than anything, this sends a message that Jesus calls people of all diversities, and I hope now we will see so many more women.”

In his sermon at the consecration, Newman said he expected female bishops to “disturb” the Church, saying: “It is in the disturbance of people like Mary Magdalene that we learn to see the world differently.

“I hope that women bishops will disturb us. I hope they will challenge the conventions of the Church of England, which continues to be led and directed by too many people like me: white, male, middle-aged professionals,” he continued, to a perceptible murmuring from the congregation.

Treweek with Dame Sarah Mullally, now the bishop of Crediton, after the service. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

He said the church should welcome the “court jesters into the seat of power, because they are the only ones who can speak the truth.

“Every section of society, secular or religious, needs a way to allow nonconformity. I hope women as new bishops will raise nonconformity to new heights. I hope they will disturb our conventions and unmask our unconscious bias within the cultural norms that are so dominant we hardly even notice them.”

The consecration had a distinctly feminine flavour, not only taking place on the feast day of Mary Magdalene, but also with the ceremony’s hymns led by the new Canterbury cathedral girls’ choir, formed only last year.

Welby called the consecration of both women a historic occasion and said they would “proclaim the gospel boldly, confront injustice and work for righteousness and peace in all the world”.

No heckler disturbed the joyful atmosphere when Welby asked the congregation if it was “now your will that they should be ordained”. When the first female bishop in the Church of England was ordained at York Minster earlier this year, Rev Paul Williamson, a fierce opponent of the idea, shouted: “No. Not in my name. Not in the bible,” when the question was asked. When the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, asked it again, Williamson was silent.

This time in Canterbury, there was no need to repeat the question: the crowd answered Welby, in full-throated unity, “we will”.

Each of the women, newly ordained, received a ceremonial bible from the beaming Welby, who also presented them with episcopal rings and pectoral crosses as the choir sang.

The cathedral rafters rang with applause, whistling and whooping as both women turned to face the congregation, which included dozens of Treweek’s schoolfriends and her old primary school teacher, as well as church friends who had travelled from as far as South Africa.

The procession of bishops at the start of the service. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Standing with the bishops, Treweek embraced her new colleagues and sang the Offertory hymn with gusto. Speaking outside the cathedral in her new purple robes, surrounded by excited wellwishers and friends, she said she had been struck by the “Mexican wave of love and clapping” as she left the ceremony. “The celebration and prayer was just fantastic, amazing,” she said.

Treweek, whose husband Guy is a priest in the City of London, began her career as a child speech therapist in the NHS before her ordination in 1994. She has spent her entire church career in the capital, and was vicar of several inner London churches before becoming archdeacon of Northolt in 2006, returning to the East End in 2011 as archdeacon of Hackney.

She is succeeding the Right Rev Michael Perham, who retired last year, and said she had spent the week running up to the consecration on a silent retreat in prayer “to really feel the weight of this calling”.

Mullally, who has become the bishop of Crediton in Devon, was previously the youngest ever chief nursing officer for England. They are the third and fourth female Church of England bishops respectively.