A pastor was in the habit of reading every word of his sermons -
which were rather long and tedious.
One of the congregation thought to cure him of this,
and, before the service,
slipped into the pulpit and removed one page at random.
The preacher began.
After a while he reached the point where the page was gone.
“And Adam said unto Eve…”
He paused. “And Adam, err, said unto Eve…
There seems to be a leaf missing!!!!!
Dr. Howard Gregory is to become the new Anglican Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
He was elected the 14th Bishop following deliberations at a special Synod on Tuesday March 27.
Bishop Gregory received two-thirds of the votes cast by the Clergy and Lay Representatives attending the Synod.
The 61 year-old clergyman, succeeds Alfred Reid, who retired on December 31 last year after serving as Bishop of Jamaica for 11 years.
Bishop Gregory, who has been in the priesthood for 38 years, has been serving as Canonical Administrator for the Diocese since January.
His enthronement as Bishop of Jamaica will take place at the Cathedral of St. Jago de la Vega in Spanish Town, at a date to be announced.
Wed. Mar.28,2012 6:54am
http://rjrnewsonline.com/news/local/rt-rev-dr-howard-gregory-new-anglican-arch-bishop
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Howard Kingsley Ainsworth Gregory was elected this afternoon as the 14th Anglican Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, following day-long deliberations at a Special Synod held at St. Luke’s Church Hall, Cross Roads.
Bishop Gregory received the two-thirds majority of the votes cast by both the Clergy and Lay Representatives attending the Synod, on the second ballot.
The 61 year-old Bishop Gregory, succeeds the Rt. Rev. and Hon. Alfred C. Reid, who retired on December 31, 2011 after serving as Bishop of Jamaica for 11 years. Bishop Gregory has been serving as Canonical Administrator for the Diocese since January 2012 and his election marks the high point of his 38 year-career in the priesthood.
His first appointment was that of Anglican Chaplain of the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies. He later served as Chaplain and Lecturer at the Church Teachers’ College in Mandeville from 1978-80. He was appointed Acting Anglican Warden and Tutor at the United Theological College of the West Indies in 1980, and served concurrently as Priest-in-charge of the Golden Grove Cure.
Rt. Rev. Dr. Howard Gregory…2
Returning from study leave in 1986, he was appointed Anglican Tutor and Lecturer in Pastoral Care and Counselling. In 1987 he was promoted to the position of Deputy President of the UTCWI. In 1990 he was appointed President of the College and served in that capacity until 2002 when he was elected Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay.
Bishop Gregory holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology from the University of the West Indies, the Diploma in Ministerial Studies from the United Theological College of the West Indies, and a Diploma in Education from the University of the West Indies. In addition, he holds a Master of Sacred Theology degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana.
Bishop Gregory was conferred with the Doctor of Divinity degree (honoris causa), by the Graduate Theological Foundation and the Virginia Theological Seminary, respectively.
His enthronement as Bishop of Jamaica will take place in the Cathedral of St. Jago de la Vega, Spanish Town, at a date to be announced.
Contact: Beverley Newell l Communications Officer l Diocese of Jamaica & The Cayman Islands
2 Caledonia Avenue, Kingston 5 l Tel: 926-8925 (Church House); 928-6426 (Private) l Cell: 320-2485 l
E-mail: bevnewell@flowja.com l Date: March 27, 2012
BISHOP Howard Kingsley Ainsworth Gregory is the new head of the Anglican Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
Bishop Gregory, 61, the Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay, replaced the Rt Rev Alfred Reid, who served as Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands for 11 years before his retirement at the end of last year.
A majority of the over 300 Clergy and Lay Representatives of the Anglican Church voted for Bishop Gregory at a special meeting of the Diocesan Synod yesterday.
The Special Synod, known as the Elective Assembly, was held at St Luke’s Church Hall in Cross Roads.
Bishop Gregory, who will now be enthroned the 14th Bishop of Jamaica, staved off a challenge from Suffragan Bishop of Kingston, Robert Thompson, who many observers felt was the favourite for the post.
Bishop Gregory led Bishop Thompson in the first round of voting, but failed to get the required two-thirds majority that would have made a second round of voting irrelevant.
However, Bishop Thompson pulled out of the race shortly before the start of the second round of voting, thus paving the way for the elevation of Bishop Gregory to the top job in the Anglican Church in the Province of the West Indies.
Voting was done in two houses, the Clergy and the Laity; with the Clergy accounting for 131 votes, and the Laity 200 of the overall 331 votes.
“It was a very cordial and peaceful session, and there was general respect for all persons,” one participant told the Jamaica Observer about the closed door event.
“Both candidates were eminently qualified to become Bishop of Jamaica, but in the end, only one could have been chosen, and the majority spoke,” the participant said.
Bishop Gregory, who writes a weekly column in the Sunday Observer, became a priest in 1974 and was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay in June 2002.
He has been serving as Canonial Administrator of the Anglican Church since January of this year, following the retirement of Bishop Reid. The Canonial Administrator is the effective head of the church in the absence of the Lord Bishop.
Bishop Gregory holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology from the University of the West Indies, a Master of Sacred Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia, USA, a Master’s degree in business administration from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South bend, Indiana, and the Doctor of Divinity degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation and the Virginia Theological Seminary.
He also holds diplomas in ministerial studies and education.
The Anglican Church is one of Jamaica’s most powerful institutions.
The church founded several educational institutions, which have developed into some of Jamaica’s foremost centres of learning.
The Anglican Church also has major community outreach porgrammes, which have, over the years, benefited thousands of Jamaicans.
Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke to the Press Association following the announcement that he will step down from the office of Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of December 2012 to take up the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Read a transcript of the complete interview below.

Transcript:
PA: You’ll be 62 when you leave the post. You could stay for another 8 years - people will be wondering why you’ve decided to go at this point.
RW: Well, at the end of this year I’ll have been 10 years in post as Archbishop, and just over 20 years as a bishop. So that’s part of it – feeling that after 10 years it’s proper to pray and reflect and review your options. And also, this year a number of watersheds come up. There are some things that are coming to term and some processes that I’ve seen through, including, for example, 10 years of running the Christian-Muslim Seminar, Building Bridges, [this phase of] which is coming to an end this year [although it will continue through Georgetown University]; the legislation in the Church of England about women bishops review reaching its final stage this summer; and I have a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in the autumn. So, a number of what I call ‘watersheds’ which seem to make this a reasonable moment to at least think about moving on. And when a possibility arrived that looked credible and attractive, it seemed right to think about it.
There’s also the fact that the next Lambeth Conference is due in 2018. I certainly felt I needed a good 5 years to get myself ready for the last Lambeth Conference - there had to be a lot of thinking and planning, a lot of consideration about what sort of event it should be, and I’m very eager to let my successor have a good run-up to that.
PA: During your time as Archbishop, there have been a lot of difficulties within the Anglican Communion over the issue of gays. I wondered if, in many ways, you might be relieved to be going?
RW: Crisis management is never a favourite activity, I have to admit, but it’s not as if that has overshadowed everything. It’s certainly been a major nuisance, but in every job that you’re in, there are controversies and conflicts and this one isn’t going to go away in a hurry. So I can’t say that there’s a great sense of ‘free at last’.
PA: There have also been delicate negotiations over women bishops, and a lot of controversy over that. Are you confident that you will be able to come to some sort of compromise acceptable to both sides in July when the General Synod votes?
RW: I’m actually very hopeful. There’s plenty of goodwill to make things work in the Synod. Between now and then there’s a huge amount still to do in terms of building relationships, building trust, exploring what options might make the legislation just that tiny bit more acceptable all round, and so I’m determined to carry on with that work. And I do feel quite upbeat about that at present - for all the difficulties, there’s a huge amount of goodwill.
PA: How would you look back over your 10 years as Archbishop of Canterbury?
RW: It’s impossible to register whether it’s been ‘a success’ or not. I look back on it chiefly as a time of enormous pressure, yes, and plenty of invitations to all sorts of things, to engage in all sorts of contexts – many many opportunities and lots of demands.
I think the two things I look back on with greatest satisfaction are that we’ve managed in the Church of England to launch this very new mission outreach programme Fresh Expressions, and get the Church of England to recognise the possibility of new styles of congregational life and new styles of training for ministers to go with it. I think that’s really begun to build itself in to the life of the Church.
And in the last couple of years we’ve also managed to launch the new Anglican Alliance for Relief and Development worldwide, so that we’ve put together a co-ordinating and umbrella body that helps the various relief agencies that are involved in the life of the Anglican Communion worldwide to work better together. And that so far has been very well received.
So those are, in my mind, some of the big positives of the last 10 years. I look back on those with a lot of gratitude.
And then, simply the opportunity of travelling in the Anglican Communion. I suppose, most poignantly, last year in Zimbabwe. But also visits to Congo and Sudan; visits to Pakistan at a time of some stress and tension there; and, of course, repeated visits to the Middle East over the last 10 years. It’s enormously stretching and inspiring, because you see people really work in the middle of appalling circumstances – heartbreaking in some ways but a great enrichment.
PA: Do you feel it has been a privilege being Archbishop of Canterbury?
RW: It has been an enormous privilege being Archbishop of Canterbury. You are given access to the life of churches worldwide, in a really unique way. And it’s not just travelling abroad, of course. Every year I make 2 or 3 visits to a diocese in England, and just spend 3 or 4 days going around visiting parishes, schools and so forth. And the privilege is that you’re taken into the heart of the local church’s life for a few days. You see what really matters to people in parishes and schools and prisons and hospices and so forth. I think there must be very few jobs where you have quite that degree of ‘open doors’ for you. And of course I deeply treasure the connection with the Diocese of Canterbury - the possibility of regularly going around there and simply ministering in country parishes in East Kent.
PA: I think you’ve mentioned this already, but what’s been the best part of your job, and what’s been the worst?
RW: The best part of the job has certainly been seeing churches at grass roots worldwide – seeing why and how they matter to people. And being given the privilege and the possibility of sharing what you hear in one part of the world, or in one part of the Church of England with other parts. You can become a kind of ‘switchboard’ for good news. You can receive good news about what’s happening in one part of the world and pass it on elsewhere, and feel very much enriched and stretched in the process.
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 of England is eager to avoid schism or separation. I’ve certainly regarded it as a real priority to try and keep people in relationship with each other. That is what bishops have to do - what archbishops above all have to do.
PA: A lot of people will think that the worst crisis for you was the row over your remarks in 2008 on Sharia law. I wondered if you still stand by what you said, and if you regretted anything about that episode.
RW: I reread quite recently the text of the lecture on Sharia law, and I still stand by the argument of it. It could have been clearer, I am sure. That can always be said, especially of things I write! But I noticed that within a few months, Lord Philips, President of the Supreme Court, was saying something very similar, and at least raising a question which needed discussion. I was a bit taken aback by the violence of the reaction; it became a feeding frenzy for a few days. But I didn’t feel any lasting damage was done. I feel that an important point was raised, a point about how the single law of the land works with and legitimates other kinds of jurisdiction within it, which already happens. The word ‘sharia’ is, of course, very emotive for people and in spite of attempts to explain that it doesn’t mean what a judge in Saudi Arabia might think it means, people still have that image in their minds. That’s where I could have been clearer, I’m sure.
PA: You’re known for your willingness to debate with atheists such as Richard Dawkins. Do you think that Christianity is losing the battle in Britain against secularisation?
RW: No, I don’t think Christianity is losing a “battle against secularisation”. I certainly don’t get that impression when I’m with congregations, when I’m in church schools or in many other settings like that - even when I’m in a very mixed group, let’s say, of 6th formers. I think there’s a great deal of interest still in the Christian faith and although I think there is also a lot of ignorance and rather dim-witted prejudice about the visible manifestations of Christianity which sometimes clouds the discussion. I don’t think that there’s somehow a single great argument that the Church is losing. I think people have come back to debate, quite properly, with Richard Dawkins, with Philip Pullman, with Tony Grayling and others - that argument goes on very robustly. What I think slightly shadows the whole thing is this sense that there are an awful lot of people now of a certain generation who don’t really know how religion works, let alone Christianity in particular. And that leads to confusions and sensitivities in the wrong areas – you know, does wearing a cross offend people who have no faith or non-Christians? I don’t think it does, but people worry that it will, and that’s partly because there’s a slight tone-deafness about how religious belief works. So, yes there’s a challenge, and yes the Church’s public role is more contested than it used to be, and yes we have to earn our right to speak more than perhaps was once the case. But that’s probably good for us. I’ve sometimes said, I think we should live in what I like to call ‘an argumentative democracy’, an argumentative pluralism. And for Christianity to be able to respond clearly and robustly in that setting is hugely important. I hope I can continue to contribute to that public discussion in the new role.
PA: You’ve got another 9 months as Archbishop of Canterbury. What are you planning to do, what will be the highlights of your remaining time?
RW: Well, I would have said ‘business as usual’ were it not for the fact that it’s an unusually busy and demanding year. As I’ve said, we’ve got a very very important piece of legislation to complete in the debate about women bishops which will be in July. We also have the Queen’s Jubilee, we have the Olympics, and I’m involved in various ways in celebrating both of those. In the autumn of this year we will have a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in New Zealand, and bolted on to that for me will be a visit to the Church in Papua New Guinea, which is a church quite poor and quite struggling but very impressive in many ways, and I’m looking forward a great deal to spending time there. I’ll be making 2 visits to English dioceses. I mentioned that I make a regular habit of going into a diocese for a few days at a time – this year I’ll be in Coventry for a bit, and Gloucester as well. So plenty to do and I don’t think that there’s any risk of diminution of energy and activity in those 9 months.
PA: What are you looking forward to about your new post?
RW: Over the last few years, there have been all kinds of ideas about the Church, about the faith, which I have longed for more time to explore and write up a bit. So I’m hoping for more space to write and to think in that way. I’m looking forward certainly to being part of an academic community with a good exchange of ideas, and to the challenges of helping that community to work, which is part of the job of the head of the College. And I think it’s not a million miles away from trying to make the community of the Anglican family work.
PA: Will you miss Lambeth Palace?
RW: I think you miss anywhere that you’ve lived for a long time, and there are bits of the Palace which are very special. I shall miss the Crypt Chapel, where we pray together every morning. And I say we ‘pray together’ because one of the things which people don’t realise about Lambeth Palace is that it is a household, it’s not an office block. People live here – some of my colleagues live on-site, we meet a lot socially, and we meet in Chapel. I have to say that the sense of being part of the community here has been extremely strong. It’s interesting that people who have worked here for a bit invariably say ‘it feels like a family’. So all of that, we shall miss deeply.
PA: I presume you’ll miss Canterbury as well.
RW: I’ll miss Canterbury enormously. It’s such a privilege to live there in Canterbury a hundred yards from the Cathedral. To be able to go into the Cathedral early in the morning on your own and experience the building in that unique way. To be part of the great celebrations there, the great events of Christmas and Holy Week and Easter, the Youth Pilgrimage on Easter Monday, ordaining priests and deacons there. It’s very very special – it’s a building absolutely drenched with significance and prayer. And once again I can say it’s been a wonderful community to be a part of. The congregation of the Cathedral, the staff of the Cathedral, the Dean – I couldn’t have asked for more positive, welcoming, affirming colleagues there.
PA: The last question is, do you have a favoured successor.
RW: Yes I do - I’d like the successor that God would like. I think it’s a job of immense demands and I would hope that my successor has the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros really! He will, I think, have to look with positive, hopeful eyes on a Church which, for all its problems, is still for so many people a place to which they resort in times of need and crisis, a place to which they look for inspiration and I think the Church of England is a great treasure. I wish my successor well in the stewardship of it.
PA: Thank you very much.
Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke to the Press Association following the announcement that he will step down from the office of Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of December 2012 to take up the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Read a transcript of the complete interview below.

Transcript:
PA
You’ll be 62 when you leave the post. You could stay for another 8 years - people will be wondering why you’ve decided to go at this point.
RW
Well, at the end of this year I’ll have been 10 years in post as Archbishop, and just over 20 years as a bishop. So that’s part of it – feeling that after 10 years it’s proper to pray and reflect and review your options. And also, this year a number of watersheds come up. There are some things that are coming to term and some processes that I’ve seen through, including, for example, 10 years of running the Christian-Muslim Seminar, Building Bridges, [this phase of] which is coming to an end this year [although it will continue through Georgetown University]; the legislation in the Church of England about women bishops review reaching its final stage this summer; and I have a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in the autumn. So, a number of what I call ‘watersheds’ which seem to make this a reasonable moment to at least think about moving on. And when a possibility arrived that looked credible and attractive, it seemed right to think about it.
There’s also the fact that the next Lambeth Conference is due in 2018. I certainly felt I needed a good 5 years to get myself ready for the last Lambeth Conference - there had to be a lot of thinking and planning, a lot of consideration about what sort of event it should be, and I’m very eager to let my successor have a good run-up to that.
PA
During your time as Archbishop, there have been a lot of difficulties within the Anglican Communion over the issue of gays. I wondered if, in many ways, you might be relieved to be going?
RW
Crisis management is never a favourite activity, I have to admit, but it’s not as if that has overshadowed everything. It’s certainly been a major nuisance, but in every job that you’re in, there are controversies and conflicts and this one isn’t going to go away in a hurry. So I can’t say that there’s a great sense of ‘free at last’.
PA
There have also been delicate negotiations over women bishops, and a lot of controversy over that. Are you confident that you will be able to come to some sort of compromise acceptable to both sides in July when the General Synod votes?
RW
I’m actually very hopeful. There’s plenty of goodwill to make things work in the Synod. Between now and then there’s a huge amount still to do in terms of building relationships, building trust, exploring what options might make the legislation just that tiny bit more acceptable all round, and so I’m determined to carry on with that work. And I do feel quite upbeat about that at present - for all the difficulties, there’s a huge amount of goodwill.
PA
How would you look back over your 10 years as Archbishop of Canterbury?
RW
It’s impossible to register whether it’s been ‘a success’ or not. I look back on it chiefly as a time of enormous pressure, yes, and plenty of invitations to all sorts of things, to engage in all sorts of contexts – many many opportunities and lots of demands.
I think the two things I look back on with greatest satisfaction are that we’ve managed in the Church of England to launch this very new mission outreach programme Fresh Expressions, and get the Church of England to recognise the possibility of new styles of congregational life and new styles of training for ministers to go with it. I think that’s really begun to build itself in to the life of the Church.
And in the last couple of years we’ve also managed to launch the new Anglican Alliance for Relief and Development worldwide, so that we’ve put together a co-ordinating and umbrella body that helps the various relief agencies that are involved in the life of the Anglican Communion worldwide to work better together. And that so far has been very well received.
So those are, in my mind, some of the big positives of the last 10 years. I look back on those with a lot of gratitude.
And then, simply the opportunity of travelling in the Anglican Communion. I suppose, most poignantly, last year in Zimbabwe. But also visits to Congo and Sudan; visits to Pakistan at a time of some stress and tension there; and, of course, repeated visits to the Middle East over the last 10 years. It’s enormously stretching and inspiring, because you see people really work in the middle of appalling circumstances – heartbreaking in some ways but a great enrichment.
PA
Do you feel it has been a privilege being Archbishop of Canterbury?
RW
It has been an enormous privilege being Archbishop of Canterbury. You are given access to the life of churches worldwide, in a really unique way. And it’s not just travelling abroad, of course. Every year I make 2 or 3 visits to a diocese in England, and just spend 3 or 4 days going around visiting parishes, schools and so forth. And the privilege is that you’re taken into the heart of the local church’s life for a few days. You see what really matters to people in parishes and schools and prisons and hospices and so forth. I think there must be very few jobs where you have quite that degree of ‘open doors’ for you. And of course I deeply treasure the connection with the Diocese of Canterbury - the possibility of regularly going around there and simply ministering in country parishes in East Kent.
PA
I think you’ve mentioned this already, but what’s been the best part of your job, and what’s been the worst?
RW
The best part of the job has certainly been seeing churches at grass roots worldwide – seeing why and how they matter to people. And being given the privilege and the possibility of sharing what you hear in one part of the world, or in one part of the Church of England with other parts. You can become a kind of ‘switchboard’ for good news. You can receive good news about what’s happening in one part of the world and pass it on elsewhere, and feel very much enriched and stretched in the process.
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 of England is eager to avoid schism or separation. I’ve certainly regarded it as a real priority to try and keep people in relationship with each other. That is what bishops have to do - what archbishops above all have to do.
PA
A lot of people will think that the worst crisis for you was the row over your remarks in 2008 on Sharia law. I wondered if you still stand by what you said, and if you regretted anything about that episode.
RW
I reread quite recently the text of the lecture on Sharia law, and I still stand by the argument of it. It could have been clearer, I am sure. That can always be said, especially of things I write! But I noticed that within a few months, Lord Philips, President of the Supreme Court, was saying something very similar, and at least raising a question which needed discussion. I was a bit taken aback by the violence of the reaction; it became a feeding frenzy for a few days. But I didn’t feel any lasting damage was done. I feel that an important point was raised, a point about how the single law of the land works with and legitimates other kinds of jurisdiction within it, which already happens. The word ‘sharia’ is, of course, very emotive for people and in spite of attempts to explain that it doesn’t mean what a judge in Saudi Arabia might think it means, people still have that image in their minds. That’s where I could have been clearer, I’m sure.
PA
You’re known for your willingness to debate with atheists such as Richard Dawkins. Do you think that Christianity is losing the battle in Britain against secularisation?
RW
No, I don’t think Christianity is losing a “battle against secularisation”. I certainly don’t get that impression when I’m with congregations, when I’m in church schools or in many other settings like that - even when I’m in a very mixed group, let’s say, of 6th formers. I think there’s a great deal of interest still in the Christian faith and although I think there is also a lot of ignorance and rather dim-witted prejudice about the visible manifestations of Christianity which sometimes clouds the discussion. I don’t think that there’s somehow a single great argument that the Church is losing. I think people have come back to debate, quite properly, with Richard Dawkins, with Philip Pullman, with Tony Grayling and others - that argument goes on very robustly. What I think slightly shadows the whole thing is this sense that there are an awful lot of people now of a certain generation who don’t really know how religion works, let alone Christianity in particular. And that leads to confusions and sensitivities in the wrong areas – you know, does wearing a cross offend people who have no faith or non-Christians? I don’t think it does, but people worry that it will, and that’s partly because there’s a slight tone-deafness about how religious belief works. So, yes there’s a challenge, and yes the Church’s public role is more contested than it used to be, and yes we have to earn our right to speak more than perhaps was once the case. But that’s probably good for us. I’ve sometimes said, I think we should live in what I like to call ‘an argumentative democracy’, an argumentative pluralism. And for Christianity to be able to respond clearly and robustly in that setting is hugely important. I hope I can continue to contribute to that public discussion in the new role.
PA
You’ve got another 9 months as Archbishop of Canterbury. What are you planning to do, what will be the highlights of your remaining time?
RW
Well, I would have said ‘business as usual’ were it not for the fact that it’s an unusually busy and demanding year. As I’ve said, we’ve got a very very important piece of legislation to complete in the debate about women bishops which will be in July. We also have the Queen’s Jubilee, we have the Olympics, and I’m involved in various ways in celebrating both of those. In the autumn of this year we will have a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in New Zealand, and bolted on to that for me will be a visit to the Church in Papua New Guinea, which is a church quite poor and quite struggling but very impressive in many ways, and I’m looking forward a great deal to spending time there. I’ll be making 2 visits to English dioceses. I mentioned that I make a regular habit of going into a diocese for a few days at a time – this year I’ll be in Coventry for a bit, and Gloucester as well. So plenty to do and I don’t think that there’s any risk of diminution of energy and activity in those 9 months.
PA
What are you looking forward to about your new post?
RW
Over the last few years, there have been all kinds of ideas about the Church, about the faith, which I have longed for more time to explore and write up a bit. So I’m hoping for more space to write and to think in that way. I’m looking forward certainly to being part of an academic community with a good exchange of ideas, and to the challenges of helping that community to work, which is part of the job of the head of the College. And I think it’s not a million miles away from trying to make the community of the Anglican family work.
PA
Will you miss Lambeth Palace?
RW
I think you miss anywhere that you’ve lived for a long time, and there are bits of the Palace which are very special. I shall miss the Crypt Chapel, where we pray together every morning. And I say we ‘pray together’ because one of the things which people don’t realise about Lambeth Palace is that it is a household, it’s not an office block. People live here – some of my colleagues live on-site, we meet a lot socially, and we meet in Chapel. I have to say that the sense of being part of the community here has been extremely strong. It’s interesting that people who have worked here for a bit invariably say ‘it feels like a family’. So all of that, we shall miss deeply.
PA
I presume you’ll miss Canterbury as well.
RW
I’ll miss Canterbury enormously. It’s such a privilege to live there in Canterbury a hundred yards from the Cathedral. To be able to go into the Cathedral early in the morning on your own and experience the building in that unique way. To be part of the great celebrations there, the great events of Christmas and Holy Week and Easter, the Youth Pilgrimage on Easter Monday, ordaining priests and deacons there. It’s very very special – it’s a building absolutely drenched with significance and prayer. And once again I can say it’s been a wonderful community to be a part of. The congregation of the Cathedral, the staff of the Cathedral, the Dean – I couldn’t have asked for more positive, welcoming, affirming colleagues there.
PA
The last question is, do you have a favoured successor.
RW
Yes I do - I’d like the successor that God would like. I think it’s a job of immense demands and I would hope that my successor has the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros really! He will, I think, have to look with positive, hopeful eyes on a Church which, for all its problems, is still for so many people a place to which they resort in times of need and crisis, a place to which they look for inspiration and I think the Church of England is a great treasure. I wish my successor well in the stewardship of it.
PA
Thank you very much.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has today revealed that he is to step down from his role at the end of the year.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has today revealed that he is to step down from his role at the end of the year.

His decision comes after 10 years in the post and after accepting the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
In a statement issued from Lambeth Palace, the Primate of All England said, “It has been an immense privilege to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, and moving on has not been an easy decision. During the time remaining there is much to do, and I ask your prayers and support in this period and beyond.
“I am abidingly grateful to all those friends and colleagues who have so generously supported Jane and myself in these years, and all the many diverse parishes and communities in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion that have brought vision, hope and excitement to my own ministry. I look forward, with that same support and inspiration, to continuing to serve the Church’s mission and witness as best I can in the years ahead.”
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, was traveling to Melanesia at the time of the announcement and was inaccessible for comment.
Archdeacon Paul Feheley, his principal secretary, noted that Archbishop Hiltz and Archbishop Williams had formed a unique bond through regular visits in recent years.”Archbishop Williams’ time in office was a time of significant challenges,” he said, “and throughout those challenging times, we benefited from his thoughtful, pastoral presence. One of the great joys for the Canadian Church was his visit in 2007 to our House of Bishops where he gave some very moving addresses on Christian Leadership as the Bishops prepared to nominate for the election of a Primate at the 2007 General Synod. I am certain that the whole Canadian church joins in wishing him well as he returns to teaching.”
Archbishop Williams is the Focus of Unity for the Anglican Communion. He is convener and host of the Lambeth Conference, President of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and Chair of the Primates’ meeting. In these roles he travels extensively throughout the Anglican Communion, visiting provinces and dioceses, and supporting and encouraging the witness of the Church in very diverse contexts. As primus inter pares among the bishops, he has a special concern for those in episcopal ministry.
Following the announcement, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Canon Kenneth Kearon wrote to members of the Standing Committee informing them of the decision.
He asked them to remember Archbishop Rowan and his family during this time of transition and reflected on the Primate’s time in office saying it had “coincided with a period of turmoil, change and development in the Anglican Communion, and his careful leadership, deeply rooted in spirituality and theology, has strengthened and inspired us all in the Communion during this time.”
Archbishop Rowan’s announcement means that ACC-15 in New Zealand during the last quarter of this year will be his last as President of the ACC.
The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said he was saddened to hear the news: “Our partnership in the gospel over the past six years has been the most creative period of my ministry. It has been life-giving to have led missions together, gone on retreats and prayed together. In his company I have drunk deeply from the wells of God’s mercy and love and it has all been joyful. He is a real brother to me in Christ.
“The last decade has been a challenging time for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. Thankfully, Archbishop Rowan is a remarkable and gifted leader who has strengthened the bonds of affection.”
