George Carey - Offices

Offices

Carey was a curate at St Mary's Islington, worked at Oak Hill Theological College and St John's Theological College, Nottingham and became Vicar of St Nicholas' Church, Durham in 1975. Within two years he had trebled the congregation. He later wrote a book on his experiences there called The Church in the Market Place.

In 1982 Carey was appointed Principal of Trinity College, Bristol. He became Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1988.

When Robert Runcie retired as Archbishop of Canterbury the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, encouraged by her former Parliamentary Private Secretary, Michael Alison MP, put Carey's name forward to the Queen for appointment. The religious correspondent for The Times, Clifford Longley, commented that "Mrs Thatcher's known impatience with theological and moral wooliness ... will have been a factor."

Carey was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury on 19 April 1991. He retired from the office on 31 October 2002 and was created a life peer as "Baron Carey of Clifton", of Clifton in the City and County of Bristol on 5 November 2002.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Carey promoted a "decade of evangelism". But he aroused strong opposition also, some of it quite personal. For example, one newspaper profile asked "Is he the worst Archbishop we have ever had?" in 1999 – before concluding that he was not, but that he was "without question the worst Archbishop imaginable for a media age". Michael Arditti, in his review of Carey's memoirs, wrote: "His eleven years in office were marked by unprecedented public criticism. He managed to alienate many of his natural supporters on the Evangelical wing of the Church, as well as both the Liberal and Conservative opposition. He was, arguably, the most excoriated archbishop since the execution of Charles I’s favourite, William Laud."

Carey is currently the Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire and the London School of Theology. He is also an Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scriveners and a Distinguished Fellow of the Library of Congress (Washington DC).