Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams, born in 1950, 104th archbishop of Canterbury, the chief bishop of the Church of England. British prime minister Tony Blair named Williams to succeed George Carey, who retired from the church leadership in October 2002.

Williams was born in Swansea, Wales, the son of a mining engineer. He received a bachelor’s degree (1971) and a master’s degree (1975) in theology from the University of Cambridge, and a doctorate in philosophy (1975) from the University of Oxford. After serving as a tutor and lecturer in divinity at Cambridge, he was appointed professor of divinity at Oxford in 1986. Williams became bishop of Monmouth (Wales) in 1992 and archbishop of Wales in 2000. By the time of his confirmation as head of the Church of England in 2002, he had developed a reputation as a progressive who supported homosexual clergy and women priests.