Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams

Rowan Douglas Williams, FBA, FRSL, FLSW (born 14 June 1950) is an Anglican bishop, poet and theologian. He is the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England, offices he has held since early 2003.

Williams was previously Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, making him the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of England, and had spent much of his earlier career as an academic at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford successively. His primacy has been marked by much speculation that the Anglican Communion (in which the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leading figure) is on the verge of fragmentation and by Williams' attempts to keep all sides talking to one another. On 16 March 2012, it was announced that he had accepted the position of Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University, beginning in January 2013. He is expected to stand down as Archbishop of Canterbury in December 2012.