Saturday Seminar: Murder in the Cathedral

Dr Rowan Williams is a theological writer, scholar and teacher. He was ordained in Ely Cathedral, elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College, University of Oxford, and later Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity. In 1991 he became Bishop of Monmouth, followed by Archbishop of Wales, and from 2002-2012 he was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. He became the 35th Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge in 2013 and is an Honorary Professor of Contemporary Christian Thought. Williams is a noted poet and translator of poetry, and, apart from Welsh, speaks or reads nine other languages. Rowan is patron of the T.S. Eliot Society, and delivered the annual T.S. Eliot lecture at Clare College Cambridge in 2013, entitled Eliot’s Christian Society and the current political crisis. He has written and lectured extensively on Eliot’s work, especially in relation to theological themes, including pieces in The New Statesmen, where he is a regular contributor. He has also published studies of other writers, including Arius, Teresa of Avila, and Sergei Bulgakov, together with writings on a wide range of theological, historical and political themes. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Literature and the Learned Society of Wales. In 2013, he was made a life peer, becoming The Rt Rev. and the Rt Hon. the Lord Williams of Oystermouth. He retired from the House of Lords in August 2020. He has since moved back to Wales, his birthplace, where he continues to write prolifically. His most recent book, Solidarity: The Work of Recognition was published earlier this year.