Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

Episcopal ministry

On 5 December 1991, Williams was elected Bishop of Monmouth in the Church in Wales: he was consecrated a bishop on 1 May 1992 at St Asaph Cathedral and enthroned at Newport Cathedral on 14 May. He continued to serve as Bishop of Monmouth after he was elected to also be the Archbishop of Wales in December 1999, in which capacity he was enthroned again at Newport Cathedral on 26 February 2000.

In 2002, he was announced as the successor to George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury — the senior bishop in the Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity recognised as primus inter pares ("first among equals") but does not exercise authority in Anglican provinces outside the Church of England. As a bishop of the disestablished Church in Wales, Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury since the English Reformation to be appointed to this office from outside the Church of England. His election by the chapter of Canterbury Cathedral was confirmed by nine bishops in the customary ceremony in London on 2 December 2002, when he officially became Archbishop of Canterbury. He was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27 February 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.

The translation of Williams to Canterbury was widely canvassed. As a bishop he had demonstrated a wide range of interests in social and political matters and was widely regarded, by academics and others, as a figure who could make Christianity credible to the intelligent unbeliever. As a patron of Affirming Catholicism, his appointment was a considerable departure from that of his predecessor and his views, such as those expressed in a widely published lecture on homosexuality were criticised by a number of evangelical and conservative Anglicans. The debate had begun to divide the Anglican Communion, however, and Williams, in his new role as its leader was to have an important role.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Williams acted ex officio as visitor of King's College London, the University of Kent and Keble College, Oxford, governor of Charterhouse School, and, since 2005, as (inaugural) chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University. In addition to these ex officio roles, Cambridge University awarded him an honorary doctorate in divinity in 2006; in April 2007, Trinity College and Wycliffe College, both associated with the University of Toronto, awarded him a joint Doctor of Divinity degree during his first visit to Canada since being enthroned and he also received honorary degrees and fellowships from various universities including Kent, Oxford, and Roehampton.

Williams is also a poet and translator of poetry. His collection The Poems of Rowan Williams, published by Perpetua Press, was longlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2004. Besides his own poems, which have a strong spiritual and landscape flavour, the collection contains several fluent translations from Welsh poets. He was criticised in the press for allegedly supporting a "pagan organisation", the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards, which promotes Welsh language and literature and uses druidic ceremonial but is actually not religious in nature.

In 2005, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, a divorcee, in a civil ceremony. Afterwards, Williams gave the couple a formal service of blessing. In fact, the arrangements for the wedding and service were strongly supported by the Archbishop "consistent with the Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage". The "strongly-worded" act of penitence by the couple, a confessional prayer written by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, to King Henry VIII, was interpreted as a confession by the bride and groom of past sins, albeit without specific reference and going "some way towards acknowledging concerns" over their past misdemeanours.

Williams officiated at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011.

On 16 November 2011, Williams attended a special service at Westminster Abbey celebrating 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.

To mark the ending of his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, Williams presented a BBC television documentary about Canterbury Cathedral, in which he reflected upon his time in office. Titled Goodbye to Canterbury, the programme was screened on 1 January 2013.

On 9 February 2010, in an address to the General Synod of the Church of England, Williams warned that damaging infighting over the ordination of women as bishops and gay priests could lead to a permanent split in the Anglican Communion. He stressed that he did not "want nor relish" the prospect of division and called on the Church of England and Anglicans worldwide to step back from a "betrayal" of God's mission and to put the work of Christ before schism. But he conceded that, unless Anglicans could find a way to live with their differences over women as bishops and homosexual ordination, the church would change shape and become a multi-tier communion of different levels – a schism in all but name.

Williams also said that "it may be that the covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don’t at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves." In such a structure, some churches would be given full membership of the Anglican Communion, while others had a lower-level form of membership, with no more than observer status on some issues. Williams also used his keynote address to issue a profound apology for the way that he had spoken about "exemplary and sacrificial" gay Anglican priests in the past. "There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them," he said. "I have been criticised for doing just this, and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."

His interest in and involvement with social issues is longstanding. While chaplain of Clare College, Cambridge, Williams took part in anti-nuclear demonstrations at United States bases. In 1985, he was arrested for singing psalms as part of a protest organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at Lakenheath, an American air base in Suffolk; his fine was paid by his college. At this time, he was a member of the left-wing Anglo-Catholic Jubilee Group headed by Kenneth Leech and he collaborated with Leech in a number of publications including the anthology of essays to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Oxford Movement titled Essays Catholic and Radical in 1983.

He was in New York at the time of September 2001 attacks, only yards from Ground Zero delivering a lecture; he subsequently wrote a short book, Writing in the Dust, offering reflections on the event. In reference to Al Qaeda, he said that terrorists "can have serious moral goals" and that "Bombast about evil individuals doesn't help in understanding anything." He subsequently worked with Muslim leaders in England and on the third anniversary of 9/11 spoke, by invitation, at the Al-Azhar University Institute in Cairo on the subject of the Trinity. He stated that the followers of the will of God should not be led into ways of violence. He contributed to the debate prior to the 2005 general election criticising assertions that immigration was a cause of crime. Williams has argued that the provisional adoption of Islamic sharia law as a valid means of arbitration (in matters such as marriage) among Muslim communities in the United Kingdom is "unavoidable", and should not be resisted.

On 15 November 2008 Williams visited the Balaji Temple in Tividale, West Midlands, on a goodwill mission to represent the friendship between Christianity and Hinduism. On 6 May 2010 Williams met Indian Islamic leader, Mohammed Burhanuddin, at Huseini Mosque in Northolt, London, to discuss the need for interfaith co-operation; and planted a "tree of faith" in the mosque's grounds to signify the many commonalities between the two religions.

Unity of the Anglican Communion

Williams became Archbishop of Canterbury at a particularly difficult time in the relations of the churches of the Anglican Communion. His predecessor, George Carey, had sought to keep the peace between the theologically conservative primates of the communion such as Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Drexel Gomez of the West Indies and liberals such as Frank Griswold, the then primate of the US Episcopal Church.

In 2003, in an attempt to encourage dialogue, Williams appointed Robin Eames, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, as chairman of the Lambeth Commission on Communion, to examine the challenges to the unity of the Anglican Communion, stemming from the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, and the blessing of same-sex unions in the Diocese of New Westminster. (Robinson was in a same-sex relationship.) The Windsor Report, as it was called, was published in October 2004. It recommended solidifying the connection between the churches of the communion by having each church ratify an "Anglican Covenant" that would commit them to consulting the wider communion when making major decisions. It also urged those who had contributed to disunity to express their regret.

In November 2005, following a meeting of Anglicans of the "global south" in Cairo at which Williams had addressed them in conciliatory terms, 12 primates who had been present sent him a letter sharply criticising his leadership which said that "We are troubled by your reluctance to use your moral authority to challenge the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada." The letter acknowledged his eloquence but strongly criticised his reluctance to take sides in the communion's theological crisis and urged him to make explicit threats to those more liberal churches. Questions were later asked about the authority and provenance of the letter as two additional signatories' names had been added although they had left the meeting before it was produced. Subsequently, the Church of Nigeria appointed an American cleric to deal with relations between the United States and Nigerian churches outside the normal channels. Williams expressed his reservations about this to the General Synod of the Church of England.

Williams later established a working party to examine what a "covenant" between the provinces of the Anglican Communion would mean in line with the Windsor Report.

Sharia law

Williams was the subject of a media and press furore in February 2008 following a lecture he gave to the Temple Foundation at the Royal Courts of Justice on the subject of "Islam and English Law". He raised the question of conflicting loyalties which communities might have, cultural, religious and civic. He also argued that theology has a place in debates about the very nature of law "however hard our culture may try to keep it out" and noted that there is, in a "dominant human rights philosophy", a reluctance to acknowledge the liberty of conscientious objection. He spoke of "supplementary jurisdictions" to that of the civil law. Noting the anxieties which the word sharia provoked in the West, he drew attention to the fact that there was a debate within Islam between what he called "primitivists" for whom, for instance, apostasy should still be punishable and those Muslims who argued that sharia was a developing system of Islamic jurisprudence and that such a view was no longer acceptable. He made comparisons with Orthodox Jewish practice (beth din) and with the recognition of the exercise of conscience of Christians.

Williams's words were critically interpreted as proposing a parallel jurisdiction to the civil law for Muslims (Sharia) and were the subject of demands from elements of the press and media for his resignation. He also attracted criticism from elements of the Anglican Communion.

In response, Williams stated in a BBC interview that "certain provision[s] of sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law; ... we already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justified conscientious objections in certain circumstances in providing certain kinds of social relations" and that "we have Orthodox Jewish courts operating in this country legally and in a regulated way because there are modes of dispute resolution and customary provisions which apply there in the light of Talmud." Williams also denied accusations of proposing a parallel Islamic legal system within Britain. Williams also said of sharia: "In some of the ways it has been codified and practised across the world, it has been appalling and applied to women in places like Saudi Arabia, it is grim."

Williams's position received more support from the legal community, following a speech given on 4 July 2008 by Nicholas Phillips, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He supported the idea that sharia could be reasonably employed as a basis for "mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution". He went further to defend the position Williams had taken earlier in the year, explaining that "It was not very radical to advocate embracing sharia law in the context of family disputes, for example, and our system already goes a long way towards accommodating the archbishop's suggestion."; and that "It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law." However, some concerns have been raised over the question of how far "embracing" sharia law would be compliant with the UK's obligation under human rights law.

In March 2014, the Law Society of England and Wales issued instructions on how to draft sharia-compliant wills for the network of sharia courts which has grown up in Islamic communities to deal with disputes between Muslim families, and so Williams's idea of sharia in the UK was, for a time, seen to bear fruit. The instructions were withdrawn in November 2014.

Comments on the British government

On 8 June 2011, Williams said that the British government was committing Britain to "radical, long-term policies for which no-one voted". Writing in the New Statesman magazine, Williams raised concerns about the coalition's health, education and welfare reforms. He said there was "indignation" due to a lack of "proper public argument". He also said that the "Big Society" idea was viewed with "widespread suspicion", noting also that "we are still waiting for a full and robust account of what the Left would do differently and what a Left-inspired version of localism would look like". The article also said there was concern that the government would abandon its responsibility for tackling child poverty, illiteracy and poor access to the best schools. He also expressed concern about the "quiet resurgence of the seductive language of 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor" and the steady pressure to increase "what look like punitive responses to alleged abuses of the system". In response, David Cameron said that he "profoundly disagreed" with Williams's claim that the government was forcing through "radical policies for which no one voted". Cameron said that the government was acting in a "good and moral" fashion and defended the "Big Society" and the coalition's deficit reduction, welfare and education plans. "I am absolutely convinced that our policies are about actually giving people a greater responsibility and greater chances in their life, and I will defend those very vigorously", he said. "By all means let us have a robust debate but I can tell you, it will always be a two-sided debate."

On 26 November 2013, at Clare College, Cambridge, Williams gave the annual T. S. Eliot Lecture, with the title Eliot's Christian Society and the Current Political Crisis. In this, he recalled the poet's assertion that a competent agnostic would make a better prime minister than an incompetent Christian. "I don't know what he would make of our present prime minister", he said. "I have a suspicion that he might have approved of him. I don't find that a very comfortable thought."

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. 11 February 2019; Huron University College, London, Ontario, DD 18 March 2019; Berkeley Divinity School, DD honoris causa 21 February 2024.

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.

In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Bath.

In 2024, he received an honorary doctorate from the Teresianum Pontificia Facoltà Teologica Pontificio Istituto di Spiritualità, Roma.

Works

The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique (1975 DPhil thesis)

The Wound of Knowledge (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1979)

Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982)

new edition (2014) ISBN 9780232530285

Eucharistic Sacrifice: The Roots of a Metaphor (Grove Books, 1982) ISBN 9780907536321

Essays Catholic and Radical ed. with K. Leech (Bowerdean, 1983)

The Truce of God (London: Fount, 1983)

Peacemaking Theology (1984)

Open to Judgement: Sermons and Addresses (1984)

Politics and Theological Identity (with David Nicholls) (Jubilee, 1984)

Faith in the University (1989)

Christianity and the Ideal of Detachment (1989)

Teresa of Avila (1991) ISBN 0-225-66579-4

Open to Judgement: Sermons and Addresses (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1994)

After Silent Centuries: Poems (Perpetua Press, 1994) ISBN 9781870882101

A Ray of Darkness (Cowley, 1995) ISBN 9781561011124

Lost Icons: Essays on Cultural Bereavement (T & T Clark, 2000)

On Christian Theology (2000)

Christ on Trial (2000) ISBN 0-00-710791-9

Arius: Heresy and Tradition (2nd ed., SCM Press, 2001) ISBN 0-334-02850-7

The Poems of Rowan Williams (2002) ISBN 9781847774521

Writing in the Dust: Reflections on 11 September and Its Aftermath (Hodder and Stoughton, 2002)

Ponder These Things: Praying With Icons of the Virgin (Canterbury Press, 2002) ISBN 9781557255099

Faith and Experience in Early Monasticism (2002)

Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert (2003) ISBN 0-7459-5170-8)

The Dwelling of the Light—Praying with Icons of Christ (Canterbury Press, 2003) ISBN 9780802827784

Darkness Yielding, co-authored with Jim Cotter, Martyn Percy, Sylvia Sands and W. H. Vanstone (2004) ISBN 1-870652-36-3

Anglican Identities (2004) ISBN 1-56101-254-8

Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church (Eerdmans, 2005) ISBN 9780802876478

Grace and Necessity: Reflections on Art and Love (2005) ISBN 9780819281180

Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Canterbury Press, 2007) ISBN 9780664236991

Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology, ed. Mike Higton (SCM Press, 2007) ISBN 0-334-04095-7

Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another (New Seeds, 2007) ISBN 9781590303900

Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction (Baylor University Press, 2008); ISBN 1-84706-425-6

Choose Life: Christmas and Easter Sermons in Canterbury Cathedral (Bloomsbury, 2009) ISBN 9781408190388

Faith in the Public Square (Bloomsbury, 2012) ISBN 9781408187586

The Lion's World - A Journey into the Heart of Narnia (SPCK, 2012); ISBN 9780281068951

Meeting God in Mark (SPCK, 2014), reprinted as Meeting God in Mark: Reflections for the Season of Lent (Westminster John Knox Press, 2015) ISBN 978-0664260521

Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (Eerdmans, 2014) ISBN 9780802871978

The Edge of Words: God and the Habits of Language (Bloomsbury, 2014) ISBN 9781472910431

Meeting God in Paul (SPCK, 2015) ISBN 978-0281073382

On Augustine (Bloomsbury, 2016) ISBN 9781472925275

Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life (SPCK/Eerdmans, 2016) ISBN 9780802874320

The Tragic Imagination: The Literary Agenda (Oxford University Press, 2016) ISBN 9780198736417

God With Us: The Meaning of the Cross and Resurrection - Then and Now (SPCK, 2017) ISBN 9780281076642

Holy Living: The Christian Tradition for Today (Bloomsbury, 2017) ISBN 9781472946089

Christ the Heart of Creation (Bloomsbury, 2018) ISBN 9781472945549

Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons (SPCK, 2018) ISBN 9780802876560

Luminaries: Twenty Lives that Illuminate the Christian Way (SPCK, 2019) ISBN 9780281082957

The Book of Taliesin (translation and introductions with Gwyneth Lewis; Penguin, 2019) ISBN 9780141396934

The Way of St Benedict (Bloomsbury, 2020) ISBN 9781472973078

Looking East in Winter: Contemporary Thought and the Eastern Christian Tradition (Bloomsbury, 2021) ISBN 9781472989246

A Century of Poetry 100 poems for searching the heart (SPCK, 2022) ISBN 9780281085521

Passions of the Soul (Bloomsbury, 2024) ISBN 9781399415682

Discovering Christianity: A Guide for the Curious (SPCK, 2025) ISBN 9780281090631

Solidarity: The Work of Recognition (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2026) ISBN 9781399431514

Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams

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Early life and ordination

Personal life

Career

Early academic career and pastoral ministry

Episcopal ministry

Subsequent academic career

Patronage

Theology

Moral theology

Economics

Iraq War and possible attack on Syria or Iran

Unity of the Anglican Communion

Position on Freemasonry

Opinion about hijab and terrorism

Creationism

Interview with Emel magazine

Sharia law

Comments on the British government

Comments on antisemitism

Climate and ecological crisis

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

LGBT rights

Ecumenism

Honours and awards

Works

Forewords and afterwords

About Rowan Williams

About Rowan Williams

Article

Related journals

Live room · 1 here

Related journals

Article

Early life and ordination

Personal life

Career

Early academic career and pastoral ministry

Episcopal ministry

Subsequent academic career

Patronage

Theology

Moral theology

Social views

Economics

Iraq War and possible attack on Syria or Iran

Unity of the Anglican Communion

Position on Freemasonry

Opinion about hijab and terrorism

Creationism

Interview with Emel magazine

Sharia law

Comments on the British government

Comments on antisemitism

Climate and ecological crisis

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

LGBT rights

Ecumenism

Honours and awards

Works

Forewords and afterwords