104th archbishop appointed
2002-07-23 13:43
London - Welsh archbishop Rowan Williams, a renowned theologian and outspoken opponent of US policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, was chosen on Tuesday to be the 104th archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans.
Williams, who was chosen by Prime Minister Tony Blair, succeeds
Rev George Carey, who is retiring on October 31 after 11 years.
"If there is one thing I long for above all else, it is that the
years to come may see Christianity in this country able again to
capture the imagination of our culture, to draw the strongest
energies of our thinking and feeling," Williams said at a news
conference after his appointment was announced.
Williams (52) has been praised in some church quarters as an
orthodox Christian and a deep thinker. Desmond Tutu, the former
archbishop of Cape Town, describes Williams as "the leading
theologian in our communion". But some conservatives have been
alarmed that he admitted ordaining a priest whom he suspected of
living in a homosexual relationship.
Williams, who was in lower Manhattan on September 11 as terrorist
strikes brought down the World Trade Centre, has criticised the
US-led war on terrorism, and has condemned sanctions against Iraq and the American threats of military action against Saddam Hussein.
Writing recently about the war on terrorism, Williams said, "It
is just possible to deplore civilian casualties and retain moral
credibility when an action is clearly focused and its goals are on the way to evident achievement.
"It is not possible when the strategy appears confused and
political leaders talk about a war that may last for years."
Williams was born on June 14, 1950 in Swansea to a Welsh-speaking
family.
He received a PhD degree from Oxford University in 1975; was a
tutor at Westcott House, the Church of England theological college in Cambridge, from 1977 to 1980; was lecturer in divinity at Cambridge University from 1980 to 1986, and professor of divinity at Oxford University from 1986 to 1992. He was elected to the prestigious British Academy in 1990.
He was elected bishop of Monmouth in 1991, and in 1999 was
elected archbishop of Wales, the senior clergyman of the Church in Wales, the Anglican church in the principality.
He married Jane Paul in 1981. They have a daughter, Rhiannon (14) and a son, Pip (6).
Williams takes the helm of a Church of England which is
suffering a steep long-term decline in attendance and increasing
pressure on its financial resources. He has advocated
"disestablishment" - ending the church's privileged position as
England's legally established church, whose supreme governor is the monarch.
Within the Anglican Communion, which claims 70 million members
worldwide, there are deep rifts between traditionalists and
liberals, particularly on homosexuality and ordaining women.
"I think the church is in for an exciting ride with someone who
is not defensive and who is open and who will engage with
contemporary issues," Christina Rees, a member of the governing
General Synod of the Church of England said on Tuesday in an interview on BBC radio.
Frank Naggs, a conservative evangelical member of the General
Synod, told the BBC his group had "problems with his radical
agenda, but in the Christian way we would like to have him clarify some of these issues, so we are arranging an early meeting hopefully to clarify some of these fundamental concerns."
On ordaining homosexual priests, he added: "As far as we are
concerned it's against the Biblical revelation ... and we are
prepared to go to the wall on this one."
Williams was quoted this year as saying it was not his job to be
"going around the bedroom with a magnifying glass doing
surveillance". And he said it was not necessary for homosexual
priests to be celibate "in every imaginable circumstance".
According to the BBC, Williams is the first Welshman elevated to
Canterbury in at least 10 centuries. Records before then, going
back to the first archbishop in 597 are murky.
Carey, who was appointed archbishop in 1991, held the Church of
England together as it decided to ordain women, but his successor
will face the equally difficult issue of whether women should
become bishops - as they already do in the Anglican churches of
Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
On the net:
Church of England
Canterbury
Rowan Williams
Anglican Communion - Sapa/AP
- SAPA