Rowan Williams has announced he will be stepping down as Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion after a turbulent decade in office.
His tenure has been marked by a bruising war between liberals and traditionalists in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality.
The announcement also comes as the Church of England stands poised to give final approval later this year for the introduction of women bishops — following several years of tortuous negotiations, the departure of some Anglican bishops to the Catholic Church and further threats of schism.
But Dr Williams’ time in office has also been marked by highlights, such as his widely-praised visit to Zimbabwe in October, when he publicly confronted the country’s president Robert Mugabe over human rights abuses.
Dr Williams has been seen as a Christian leader who was willing to debate publicly with militant atheists — most recently at Oxford University with Richard Dawkins, the best-selling author of The God Delusion.
The archbishop has also been centre-stage of national occasions, marrying the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey last year in a service watched by a global television audience.
An outstanding intellectual who speaks seven languages, 61-year-old Dr Williams has an international reputation as a theologian, poet and philosopher.
He has not fought shy of controversy, expressing trenchant opinions on a number of issues, from children’s welfare to the plight of asylum seekers. Most notably he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Recently he attracted headlines when he warned in the New Statesman magazine that the coalition Government was pushing through radical change for which no one has voted.
At times, Dr Williams’ dense academic language has left commentators and journalists struggling to understand him — a difficulty highlighted in the row that engulfed him in the early part of 2008 over his remarks about sharia law in a BBC radio interview and in a public lecture.
Dr Williams apologised later for what he famously termed his “unclarity” in a speech to the General Synod, the National Assembly of the Church of England, after an unprecedentedly hostile reaction from many sectors of society.
The row led to calls for him to resign and accusations that he was, however well-loved, essentially an academic who was not suited to the job of leading the Anglican Church.
This accusation was not new and had already been levelled against him over his handling of the row within the Anglican Communion over homosexuality.
He had said before his enthronement as archbishop that he could “see a case” for acknowledging faithful same-sex relationships, raising hopes among liberals of a relaxation of traditional church teaching on the subject.
But these hopes were dashed in 2003 in the row over the nomination of Jeffrey John, a gay but celibate clergyman, as bishop of Reading.
Dr John, who is now Dean of St Albans, was forced to withdraw his acceptance of the post, and Dr Williams went on to acknowledge the “pain” the furore had caused within the Church, saying he had been taken aback by the strength of the reaction.
The row over Dr John was soon to be superseded by the worldwide row within the Anglican Communion over the election and consecration by the Episcopal Church in the US in 2003 of an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, who lives with his male partner, as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Dr Williams, who is married to theologian Jane Williams, is known as a warm and humorous man, who said early in his tenure that liked to watch The Simpsons cartoon series with his two children.
He is known not to carry a mobile phone and also told the New Statesman in 2008 that The Muppet Christmas Carol was one of his favourite films.
Dr Williams and his wife have been careful to keep their children, Pip, now 16 years old and doing his GSCEs and his daughter Rhiannon, who is 24 and doing a master’s degree, out of the public eye.
The announcement that he is to step down marks his return to academia after more than 20 years as a bishop and archbishop.
Dr Williams, who was born in Swansea, south Wales, was consecrated bishop of Monmouth in 1991 and elected Archbishop of Wales in 1999.
His move from his post in Wales made him the first Welsh successor to St Augustine of Canterbury and the first in the post from outside the English church since the mid-13th century.
The announcement today also marks a return to Cambridge where he studied theology as an undergraduate and where he spent nine years in academic and parish work from 1977, first at Westcott House, being ordained priest in 1978, and from 1980 as curate at St George’s, Chesterton.
In 1983 he was appointed lecturer in divinity in the university, and the following year became dean and chaplain of Clare College.
He was made Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Oxford in 1986, aged just 36.
PA