Archbishop of Canterbury finally steps down

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is stepping down at the end of the year, calling an end to a tumultuous decade as leader of a global Anglican Communion that has been sharply divided over sexuality and gender.Williams, 61, renowned for his formidable learning, announced Friday he will take up a new post as master of Magdalene College,Cambridge.He was appointed in 2002 as archbishop of Canterbury, the senior official in the Church of England and the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which says it represents 85 million people worldwide.A self-described “hairy leftie,” Williams is instantly recognizable due to his thick beard and vigorous eyebrows. His statements, often dense and complex, invariably were gently spoken.He is the author of more than two dozen books, ranging across theology, history, economics and the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky. He eagerly shared debating platforms with his opponents, including atheist biologist Richard.Much of Williams‘ time as archbishop was devoted to trying to hold the diverse churches within the Anglican Communion together despite an often bitter dispute over homosexuality, which put conservative and growing African churches at odds with liberal churches in the United States and Canada.Within England, Williams disappointed liberal supporters by not backing the appointment of a gay priest, Jeffrey John, to a bishopric. Yet conservatives in the church remained suspicious of Williams because, as archbishop of Wales, he had knowingly ordained gay men to the priesthood.“The worst aspects of the job, I think, have been the sense that there are some conflicts that won’t go away, however long you struggle with them, and that not everybody in the Anglican Communion or even in the Church is eager to avoid schism or separation,” Williams said in an interview with the British news agency, Press Association.“Crisis management is never a favourite activity, I have to admit, but it is not as if that has overshadowed everything,” Williams added, saying “It has certainly been a major nuisance.”As the Church of England moves slowly toward allowing women to become bishops, Williams had sought with limited success to devise a formula to placate both advocates of female bishops and those in the church who refuse to have anything to do with them.The Anglicans’ looming final vote on female bishops, Williams said, is one of the “watersheds” this year that encouraged him to think of moving on.