Rowan Williams

Who is Rowan Williams?

Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth PC FBA FRSL FLSW is an Anglican bishop, poet and theologian. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England, offices he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Williams was previously Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, making him the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of England. He spent much of his earlier career as an academic at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford successively. He speaks three languages and reads at least nine. He has since described his spoken German as a 'disaster area' and said that he is 'a very clumsy reader and writer of Russian'.

The primacy of Williams was marked by speculation that the Anglican Communion was on the verge of fragmentation. Williams worked to keep all sides talking to one another.