The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be a part of the Anglican Communion.
The current archbishop is the Most Reverend Rowan Williams. He is the 104th in a line that goes back more than 1400 years to St Augustine of Canterbu...
more
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be a part of the Anglican Communion.
The current archbishop is the Most Reverend Rowan Williams. He is the 104th in a line that goes back more than 1400 years to St Augustine of Canterbury, who founded the oldest see in England in the year 597.
From the time of St. Augustine until the 16th century, the Archbishops of Canterbury were in full communion with the See of Rome and thus received the pallium. During the English Reformation the church broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church, at first temporarily under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and later permanently during the reign of Elizabeth I. The question of the validity of the apostolic succession of the post-reformation archbishops of Canterbury was...
less
