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Lord Williams of Oystermouth wades into conversion therapy debate as No 10’s stance sparks boycott of its LGBT conference.Lord Williams signed the open letter to Boris Johnson, along with senior clergy, including the Dean of St Paul’s, the Very Revd Dr David Ison; the Bishop of Buckingham, the Right Revd Dr Alan Wilson; the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn; and the Dean of Manchester, the Very Revd Rogers Govender. In the open letter, obtained by ITV News, they added: “To allow those discerning this journey to be subject to coercive or undermining practices is to make prayer...

The Archbishop of Canterbury called for an end to economic growth to save the planet. Dr Rowan Williams said that economic growth based on consumer power had led to towards 'the death of what is most distinctively human'.

Primary school teachers should be allowed to wear Muslim veils in the classroom, according to the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Rowan Williams claims that there is no reason to “panic” over the use of the niqab and that even young children do not necessarily need to be able to see their teacher’s face. Speaking in an interview for the Christian think-tank Theos, he argued that there fears over how such a practice might affect children’s learning were “misplaced.” […] His comments are set to reignite the row over the role of the controversial full-face veil in public life which have...

Recently, while discussing the role of fictional stories in spiritual formation with my students, I found myself returning to the works of C.S. Lewis as an example. While I did not discuss The Chronicles of Narnia, I can undeniably say that the fictional works of Lewis have shaped me spiritually. From a young age, I have read and reread the Narnian stories. They have become a part of my spiritual formation and of many others as well. Lewis has had this effect on Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, as well. He also confesses to repeatedly reading and studying the...

It was not so long ago, in 2008, that Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, welcomed Islam into the United Kingdom. He now speaks of having to adapt further to the growing Muslim population, now numbering two million, with 85 Islamic courts in the UK, where women are unequal to men and remain unprotected from the violence of their fathers and husbands. At least one cleric, Suhaib Hasan, is advocating stoning and amputation (one more adaptation to national acceptance of One Law for All). Apparently, English law has already evolved and adopted some aspects of Sharia law, yet Williams...

An angry mother has accused a primary school of denying her child water on one of the hottest days of the year for fear of upsetting pupils observing Ramadan. Kora Blagden, 32, claimed a teacher at her son Luke’s school refused to let the 10-year old drink from his water bottle because it was unfair to fasting classmates. Many pupils at Charles Dickens Primary School, Portsmouth, Hampshire, are fasting during Ramadan, which means they refrain from taking food or water between sunrise and sunset for around 30 days, depending on the moon. Mother-of-four Kora said: 'Just before bedtime me and...

The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, talked about the recent Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Conn., discounting the argument put forward, including by many Christians in the United States, that "it's not guns that kill, it's people." "People use guns. But in a sense guns use people, too. When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action," the leader of the world's 80 million-strong Anglican Communion said, delivering BBC Radio 4's "Thought for the Day" on Saturday.

The relationship between the Jewish community and the Church of England has taken a downward turn following its decision to strengthen ties with an anti-Israel group. The Jerusalem Post has learned that the Board of Deputies of British Jews has pulled out of meetings this week with Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the archbishop of Canterbury. A motion is also set to be raised at the board’s monthly meeting in which the deputies will call on the organization to sever all ties to the Church of England. At its General Synod in York on Monday, the Church’s highest legislative...

Push for an Anglican Covenant overtaken by the dissolution of the communionThe Archbishop of Canterbury has conceded defeat in the battle over the Anglican Covenant. In a 2 Dec 2012 Advent letter to the primates, Dr. Rowan Williams said the Anglican Communion had become “corrupted” and could no longer be considered a communion of churches but a “community of communities.” Dr. Williams’ somber appreciation of the state of the communion today, contrasts with his past letters to the leaders of the Communions 38 provinces. Nothing now bound the church together apart from good will. In 2009 Dr. Williams rejected calls...

(Reuters) - A secretive group choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, is under pressure to break a deadlock in their talks and reach a decision, nearly a month after an announcement was expected. The choice of the next head of the worldwide Anglican Communion comes at critical time for a church threatened by a rise in secularism and long-running divisions over senior women clergy and homosexuality. The 105th Archbishop of Canterbury will have to contend with the risk of a schism over sex and sexuality. Liberal church leaders in the United States...

Dr Rowan Williams is retiring as the Archbishop of Canterbury to take up the post of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. His “valedictory” book, Faith in the Public Square, is attracting considerable media interest. I was prompted to buy it after reading Dr William Oddie’s particularly colorful review in the London Catholic Herald. Oddie concluded that the ideas promoted in the book are the sort of impractical nonsense one only hears on Oxbridge high tables and in senior common rooms. I have never met Dr Williams but I once quoted him in a paper I delivered in Italy, a short...

The first thing to be said about Dr. Rowan Williams is that he is by common consent a subtle theologian, a sensitive pastoral priest, and a genuinely good and holy man, because a great many less flattering things will be said about him in the next few months, some of them further down this column. Dr. Williams announced last Friday that he intended to resign at the end of the year as Archbishop of Canterbury and therefore as spiritual leader of the Church of England and, by extension, of the 77 million–strong Anglican Communion around the world. His announcement came...

LONDON (AP) — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams 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."I would hope that my successor has the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros," he said.He was appointed in 2002 as archbishop of Canterbury, the senior official in the Church of England and the spiritual leader...

He is regarded as the most famous atheist in the world but last night Professor Richard Dawkins admitted he could not be sure that God does not exist. He told the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, that he preferred to call himself an agnostic rather than an atheist. The two men were taking part in a public “dialogue” at Oxford University at the end of a week which has seen bitter debate about the role of religion in public life in Britain. Last week Baroness Warsi, the Tory party chairman, warned of a tide of “militant secularism” challenging the...

Will the sun set on the Anglican communion?The archbishop of Canterbury is going to resign next year. At least that’s the story making the rounds of newspapers in London, and the interesting part is not that the 61-year-old Rowan Williams should be willing to give up another decade in the job. Or even, if the Telegraph is right, that the clergy and his fellow bishops are working to push him out. No, the interesting news about the looming resignation is how little attention anyone appears to be paying to it. The Church of England just doesn’t seem to matter all...

The Queen’s role as head of the Church of England may no longer be “appropriate” following changes to the law of succession, a group of MPs has suggested.Reforms agreed earlier this year by Commonwealth countries would create a potential conflict of interest because they allow a monarch to marry a Roman Catholic, said a parliamentary committee. It said that if a future heir to the throne were raised as a Catholic, there would be an “obvious difficulty” in that person becoming head of the Anglican Church on their succession. Under current laws, the Queen is required to “join in communion”...

This from a good source in Rome: apparently both Lambeth Palace and elements in the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity were “implacably opposed” to Pope Benedict XVI’s dramatic new arrangements for Anglicans. The source also reports speculation that Archbishop Rowan Williams put pressure on Vatican ecumenists to stop the Apostolic Constitution being issued. For all I know, he did persuade Cardinal Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council, that it wasn’t a good idea. But this particular portfolio was taken out of Kasper’s hands a long time ago; indeed, it looks as if the cardinal was simply “informed” what...

Lord Carey of Clifton has called on his successor as Archbishop of Canterbury to complain to the Pope in person about not being consulted over plans to admit disaffected Anglicans to the Roman Catholic Church. Lord Carey warned that the Pope’s strategy could damage relations with the Vatican. Lord Carey, who stepped down in 2002, urged Dr Rowan Williams to protest strongly when he visits the Pope in Rome next month. Lord Carey was speaking after the joint press conference this week between Dr Williams and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to announce the move....

Doctor Rowan Williams is to become the first leader of the Church of England to make a pilgrimage to the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes. The Archbishop of Canterbury flies to the shrine of Our Lady in the French Pyrenees on Monday, a week after Pope Benedict XVI made his own pilgrimage there. He will be part of a historic pilgrimage of ten Church of England bishops, 60 Anglican priests and 400 Anglican lay worshippers. The event shows how church leaders are committed to closer ties. Dr Williams will preach, take part in a number of Catholic celebrations and pray...

VATICAN CITY - THE archbishop of Canterbury held his first talks on Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI since the Roman Catholic church's unprecedented invitation to disaffected Anglicans, with the Vatican saying the two sides still want to press ahead for closer relations. Archbishop Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict met privately for 20 minutes in what the Vatican called 'cordial discussions', as part of what has clearly been a difficult visit by the Anglican leader. The Vatican said in a brief statement that the two leaders 'turned to the challenges facing all Christian communities' and the need 'to promote forms...