Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury.

The current archbishop is the Most Reverend Rowan Williams. He is the 104th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", in the year 597. On 9 November 2012 it was officially announced that the Right Reverend Justin Welby, currently the Bishop of Durham, has been appointed to succeed Williams as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. The date for his enthronement in Canterbury Cathedral was announced as 21 March 2013.

From the time of Augustine until the 16th century, the Archbishops of Canterbury were in full communion with the See of Rome and thus usually received the pallium. During the English Reformation the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, at first temporarily under Henry VIII and Edward VI and later permanently during the reign of Elizabeth I.

In the Middle Ages there was considerable variation in the methods of nomination of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops. At various times the choice was made by the canons of Canterbury Cathedral, the King of England, or the Pope. Since the English Reformation, the Church of England has been more explicitly a state church and the choice is legally that of the Crown; today it is made in the name of the Sovereign by the Prime Minister, from a shortlist of two selected by an ad hoc committee called the Crown Nominations Commission.