Williams, Rowan Douglas, 1950-

Rowan Douglas Williams was born on June 14, 1950 to Nancy Delphine (Morris) and Aneurin Williams in Swansea, Wales. He received first-class honors in theology from Christ's College, Cambridge and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Wadham College, Oxford, in 1975. He lectured and trained for ordination at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, before returning to Cambridge as a theology tutor at Westcott House. He was ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church in 1977, and a priest in 1978 by Peter Walker, Bishop of Ely. In 1981, Williams married Jane Paul, and they have two children. Williams served as lecturer, dean, chaplain, or canon at various Oxford and Cambridge colleges until 1992, when he was consecrated Bishop of Monmouth in the Church of Wales. He was then elected to be the Archbishop of Wales in 2000, and then the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he worked to maintain unity in the global Anglican Communion over disagreements about the ordination of women and gay men to the priesthood and about homosexual marriage. He supported immigration, interfaith dialogue, particularly between Christianity and Islam, economic equality, and nuclear disarmament. He also presided over the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. After retiring as Archbishop in 2013, Williams became Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he served until 2020.

Williams has published numerous books on theology, especially focusing on the Church Fathers and the history of Christian spirituality. He has also published a poetry collection, The poems of Rowan Williams (2004), and many individual poems and poems translated into English from Welsh. In 2015, he wrote and staged a play, Shakeshafte, about a meeting between William Shakespeare and Edmund Campion.