Following the announcement this morning that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will be stepping down from his present office at the end of December, The Archbishop of York has released the following statement:
“It is with great sadness that I received the news that the Archbishop of Canterbury will be stepping down at the end of this year.
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
I for one am saddened by the news. +Rowan has exhibited all the virtues of a spiritual leader, the position afforded him in the Communion. In our ‘political’ world he has been under constant fire for being just that. In a strange manner, his holiness, kindness, humility and deep faith has offended partisans on both the left and the right. That, I believe, speaks more about his critics than about him.