Dr. Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from December 2002 to December 2012, holding the offices of Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England. Previously, he was Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times to be appointed from outside the Church of England.

An accomplished theologian and scholar, Williams spent much of his early career in academia at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He is a noted linguist, speaking several languages and reading many more, though he has characteristically described his spoken German as a “disaster area” and his Russian as hesitant.

Williams’ tenure as Archbishop coincided with a period of profound tension within the Anglican Communion, particularly over questions of doctrine, authority, and human sexuality. He worked consistently to preserve unity by encouraging dialogue across theological and cultural divisions. Key moments of his primacy included the rejection by a majority of dioceses of his proposed Anglican Covenant and, in his final General Synod, the failure to secure sufficient support for legislation allowing women to be appointed as bishops in the Church of England.

Williams stepped down as Archbishop of Canterbury on Dec. 31, 2012, and became Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in January 2013, a post he held until 2020. Later in 2013, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of South Wales. In recognition of his public service, he was elevated to the peerage as a life peer in January 2013 and sits in the House of Lords as Baron Williams of Oystermouth, serving as a crossbencher.