Rowan Williams

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Rowan Douglas Williams of Oystermouth, born 14 June 1950, is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian, and poet.

He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, his post from December 2002 to December 2012.

Previously, Archbishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be elected from within the Church of England. Williams' primacy was marked by rumors that the Anglican Communion (in which the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leading figure) was on the brink of fragmentation over current topics such as homosexuality and gender ordination.

Williams continued to keep all sides of the conversation going on.

During his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, notable events include the rejection by a majority of dioceses of his planned Anglican Covenant and the failure of a law allowing the appointment of women bishops in the Church of England. Williams has spent much of his time as an academic at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, respectively. Williams also reads at least nine languages.

Williams took up the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 2013, and Chancellor of the University of South Wales in 2014.

In 2013, he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh. On November 9, 2012, Justin Welby succeeded Williams as Canterbury's Archbishop of Canterbury, having been enthroned in March 2013.

Williams was promoted to the peerage as a life baron in December 2012, meaning he could continue to speak in Parliament on Tuesday.

He was appointed to the House of Lords temporal benches on January 8th and its gazetting on January 11th, 2013. He was named Baron Williams of Oystermouth on January 15th, 2013 as a crossbencher.

Early life and ordination

Williams was born in Swansea, Wales, on June 14th, 1950, as part of a Welsh-speaking family. He was the only child of Aneurin Williams and his partner Nancy Delphine (also known as "Del") Williams (née Morris), who became Anglicans in 1961. He was educated at Swansea's state-owned Dynevor School before studying theology at Christ' College, Cambridge, where he gained first-class distinctions. He then enrolled at Wadham College, Oxford, where he studied under A. M. Allchin and earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1975 with a dissertation entitled The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique.

Williams taught and qualified for ordination at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, for two years (1975–1977). In 1977, he returned to Cambridge to teach theology as a tutor (as well as chaplain and Director of Studies) at Westcott House; he was made a deacon in the chapel by Eric Wall, Bishop of Huntingdon, on Tuesday (2 October). While at Ely Cathedral, Peter Walker, Bishop of Ely, was ordained a priest the Petertide.

Private life

Jane Paul, a writer and lecturer in theology, married Williams on July 4, 1981. They have two children.

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Career

Williams did not have a formal curacy until 1980, when he spent at St George's, Chesterton, Cambridge, before being appointed a university lecturer in divinity at Cambridge. He served as dean and chaplain of Clare College in 1984 and 1986, he was appointed to the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, a post which brought with it the appointment of a resident canonry of Christ Church Cathedral. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD) in 1989 and was named a Fellow of the British Academy in 1990.

Williams was proclaimed Bishop of Monmouth in the Church of Wales on December 5th, 1991: he was enthroned at Newport Cathedral on May 1st, 1992. After being elected to also be the Archbishop of Wales in December 1999, he was enthroned again at Newport Cathedral on February 26, 2000, he continued to serve as Bishop of Monmouth.

He was announced as the successor to George Carey as the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, the senior bishop in the Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a symbol of unity, as primus inter pares ("first among equals"), but does not exercise power in Anglican provinces outside of the Church of England. Williams, as a bishop of Wales, was the first Archbishop of Canterbury since the English Reformation was deposed from the Church of England. In the customary service in London on December 2, 2002, when he officially became Archbishop of Canterbury, nine bishops confirmed his election by the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral. He was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on February 27, 2003, as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.

Williams' translation from Canterbury to Canterbury was widely circulated. He had demonstrated a variety of interests in social and political issues as a bishop and was widely considered by scholars and others as a figure who could make Christianity credible to the skeptical unbeliever. His appointment as a patron of Affirming Catholicism was a significant departure from that of his predecessor and his convictions, as well as those that were expressed in a widely distributed seminar on homosexuality. However, the Anglican Communion had begun to divide it, and Williams, in his current role as its king, was to play a significant part.

Archbishop of Canterbury, William Williams served ex officio as visitor of King's College London, University of Kent, and Keble College, Oxford, governor of Charterhouse School, and, since 2005, as the (inaugural) chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University. In addition to these ex officio positions, Cambridge University granted him an honorary doctorate in divinity in 2006; in April 2007, Trinity College and Wycliffe College, both affiliated with the University of Toronto, granted him a joint Doctor of Divinity degree, as well as honorary degrees and fellowships from several universities, including Kent, Oxford, and Roehampton.

Williams speaks or reads eleven languages: English, Welsh, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Biblical Hebrew, Syriac, Latin, and both Ancient (koine) and Modern Greek. In order to read Dostoevsky's works in the original, he learned Russian. Since speaking German, he has described it as a "disaster zone" and added that he is "a clumsy reader and writer of Russian."

Williams is also a poet and poet translator of poetry. Rowan Williams' collection, published by Perpetua Press in 2004, was longlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2004. The collection includes several fluent translations from Welsh writers in addition to his own poems, which have a strong spiritual and landscape flavor. He was chastised in the press for reportedly supporting a "pagan group" that promotes Welsh language and literature and uses druidic rituals, but not religious in character.

Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, a divorcee, in a civil ceremony in 2005. Williams later performed a formal service of blessing for the couple. In fact, the Archbishop's "consistent with the Church of England's remarriage guidelines" was largely supported for the wedding and service. The bride and groom's penitence gesture, although without specific mention and heading "someway towards acknowledging complaints" regarding their previous misdeeds, was interpreted by the couple, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury to King Henry VIII.

On the 29th of April 2011, Williams officiated at Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding.

Williams attended a special service at Westminster Abbey on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles, Patron of the King James Bible Trust.

In which Williams reflected on his time in office, he brought a BBC television documentary about Canterbury Cathedral to mark the end of his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury. The programme, titled Goodbye to Canterbury, was broadcast on January 1, 2013.

Williams warned on February 9th, 2010, in an address to the General Synod of the Church of England, that losing infighting over the ordination of women as bishops and gay priests could result in a permanent break in the Anglican Communion. He cautioned that he did not "want nor fear" the possibility of division, and that the Church of England and Anglicans around the world should take a "betrayal" of God's mission and to place Christ's work before schism. However, he confessed that if Anglicans were able to live without their differences over women as bishops and homosexual ordination, the church would restructure and become a multi-tier communion of differing types, a schism in spite of name.

"It could be that the covenant causes a situation in which there are several levels of relationship between those claiming Anglican's name," Williams continued. I don't at all like this, but I do believe it will be an unavoidable part of limiting the harm we are already doing to ourselves." Some churches would be offered full membership in Anglican Communion, while others had a lower-level membership with no more than observer status on certain topics. Williams later released a profound apology for the way he had talked about "exemplary and sacrificial" gay Anglican priests in the past. "There are ways of addressing the issue without seeming to ignore them or undervalue them," he said. "I have been chastised for doing exactly this, and I'm deeply sorry for the carelessness that could give such a sense."

Williams was accepted as the 35th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, on January 17, 2013 and stayed until September 2020. In 2017, the University of Cambridge also named him an Honorary Professor of Contemporary Christian Thought. The University of South Wales' new chancellor, as the university's ceremonial head, was announced on June 18, 2013.

Williams had written a play called Shakeshafte about a meeting between William Shakespeare and Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest and martyr, in 2015. Williams claims that Shakespeare was Catholic but not a regular attender of the church. In July 2016, the production came to the stage and was applauded.

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Honours and awards

• Life peerage (created 8 January 2013)
• Royal Victorian Chain (2012)
• Chaplain of the Order of St John (1999)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I (2004)
• Order of Friendship of Russia (2010)
• Sitara-e-Pakistan (2012)
• Membership in the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, 2002
• Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), 1990
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL), 2003
• Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW), 2010
• Honorary doctorates: University of Kent, DD, 2003; University of Wales, DD, 2003; Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät, University of Bonn, Dr. theol. honoris causa, 2004; University of Oxford, DCL, 2005; University of Cambridge, DD, 2006; Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, DD, 2007; Trinity College, University of Toronto, DD, 2007; Durham University, DD, 2007; Rikkyo University, DD, 2009; St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, DD, 2010; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, DD, 2011; King's College London, DD, 2011; DUniv Canterbury Christ Church University, 2012; University of South Wales, DUniv, 2013; University of Warwick, LLD, 2016; Sewanee: The University of the South, DD, 2016; Uppsala University, Sweden, teol. dr honoris causa 2017; Yale University, 2018; The General Theological Seminary, New York, D.D. Feb. 11, 2019; Huron University College, London Ontario, DD 18 March 2019.
• Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford
• Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford
• Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge
• Honorary Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge
• Honorary Fellow of Glyndŵr University, Wrexham
• Honorary Fellow of St Chad's College, Durham
• Freedom of the City of Swansea, Wales: 31 July 2010.
• Freedom of the City of Canterbury, Kent: 17 November 2012.
• Freeman of the City of London, and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers.
• In 2011, he was awarded the President's Medal by the British Academy.