Archbishop of Canterbury to step down Dr Rowan Williams is standing down after ten years as Archbishop of Canterbury. The 61-year-old will leave at the end of December to take up a new post as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge in January. Lambeth Palace said the Queen, as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has been informed. Dr Williams was confirmed as 104th holder of the post and spiritual leader of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion in December 2002. He said that being Archbishop of Canterbury had been an "enormous" privilege. "I would like the successor that God would like," he said. I think that it is 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. But 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. I think the Church of England is a great treasure. I wish my successor well in the stewardship of it. His departure comes after tensions within the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality and women bishops.