Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams, in full Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth in the City and County of Swansea, was the 104th archbishop of Canterbury (2002–12), as well as a noted theologian, archbishop of the Church in Wales (2000–02), and the first archbishop of Canterbury in modern times chosen from outside the Church of England. He has written extensively across a very wide range of related fields of professional study – philosophy, theology (especially early and patristic Christianity), spirituality and religious aesthetics. He has also written throughout his career on moral, ethical and social topics and, after becoming archbishop, turned his attention increasingly on contemporary cultural and interfaith issues. As Archbishop of Canterbury his principal responsibilities were pastoral – leading the life and witness of the Church of England in general and his own diocese in particular by his teaching and oversight, and promoting and guiding the communion of the world-wide Anglican Church by the globally recognized ministry of unity that attaches to the office of bishop of the see of Canterbury.