Williams, Rowan Douglas (1950– )

Welsh cleric and archbishop of Canterbury from 2002. Regarded as a liberal on ethical and moral issues but a conservative on theological doctrine, he supports the ordination of women, and has an open attitude towards homosexuality within the priesthood and the laity. He also takes a liberal view of ecclesiastical remarriage for divorced people in church. A critic of the war on terror and the detention of suspects without trial following the attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001, he has morally equated the military intervention in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq to the terrorism they have sought to defeat.

Born into a Welsh-speaking family in Swansea, he studied theology at Christ's College, Cambridge, obtained a doctorate at Oxford University, and then lectured at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, before returning to Cambridge in 1977. He was ordained a priest in 1978, subsequently serving as chaplain, tutor, and director of studies at Westcott House, Cambridge, until 1980, and then as honorary curate at Chesterton St George, Ely, and dean and chaplain of Clare College. In 1986 he returned to Oxford as a residentiary canon at Christ Church and professor of divinity until 1992, when he became bishop of Monmouth. From 2000 he was archbishop of Wales before his appointment as Primate of All England and leader of the Anglican Communion in 2002.