The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is a radical liberal who is not afraid to tread on the toes of others by expressing views they may find uncomfortable.
In the past, he has labelled the Afghanistan conflict "morally tainted" and said any US invasion of Iraq would be "immoral and illegal". On social issues, the spiritual leader of 70 million Anglicans, from Australia to Africa, is equally forthright - he supports homosexual clerics and wants women to be bishops.
He is even ready to step into a moral minefield.
Aides say he would allow Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, both divorcees, to marry in church. Dr Williams is also said to be keen to sever the links between state and church in Britain, where vicars (priests or rectors) swear allegiance to the crown.
On the lighter side, the bearded clerichas a passion for The Simpsons on television, calling them "one of the most subtle pieces of propaganda around in the cause of sense, humility and virtue".
He was born in Wales in 1950 and became Oxford University's youngest theology professor at 36. He was enthroned as Bishop of Monmouth in 1992 and elected Archbishop of Wales in 2000. He is the first Archbishop of Canterbury from outside England since the Anglican church broke with Rome.
He is a respected philosopher who speaks seven languages and is certainly not afraid to speak his mind, castigating western leaders for their "embarrassing" failure to define the aims and limits of the war on terrorism.
On September 11th last year, he was in Wall Street in New York when the World Trade Centre was hit.
Recalling the surreal silence of the horror, he said: "It can't have been silent. There must have been - I know there were - shouts, sirens. A few minutes later there was an indescribably long roar of the second tower collapsing. But I remember it as quiet; the very few words spoken, the ghostliness of it all."
He recently signed a declaration denouncing any US plans to attack Iraq, arguing that "eradicating the dangers posed by malevolent dictators and terrorists can only be achieved by tackling the root causes of the disputes".
In 1985 he was arrested while reciting psalms on the runway of a US airbase in Britain.
Evangelicals have issued dire warnings of a major split in Anglican ranks over his stance on gay clerics. He has acknowledged ordaining a man whom he knew to be gay and says the church "should find a way of saying to Christian homosexuals that it is okay to talk about this without instantly thinking you are going to be under a cloud".
Dr Williams and his wife Jane, a theology lecturer, have two children and he cheerfully admits he is too busy getting them ready for school to find any time to pray in the morning.
He cuts a striking figure with his flowing druidical beard, he has a penchant for shaggy sweaters and says one of his clerical heroes is Father Ted, the priest played by Dermot Morgan in the Channel 4 television series of the same name.