Rowan Williams to step down?

From Jonathan Wynne-Jones, at The Guardian:

Dr Rowan Williams is understood to have told friends he is ready to quit the highest office in the Church of England to pursue a life in academia.

The news will trigger intense plotting behind the scenes over who should succeed the 61-year-old archbishop, who is not required to retire until he is 70.

Bishops have privately been arguing for Dr Williams to stand down, with the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, telling clergy he should give someone else a chance after nearly ten years in the post….

Sources close to the archbishop say he will leave after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee next June and having seen the Church finally pass legislation to allow women to become bishops.

It is understood that Trinity College, Cambridge, is preparing to create a professorship for Dr Williams, who studied theology and was a chaplain at the university….

This could allow for John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, to succeed him in a caretaker role as the Ugandan-born cleric is one year older than the Archbishop of Canterbury….

[Bishop Chartres:] “He would have just as good a chance of becoming archbishop given his connection with the royal family, but the only problem is his opposition to women’s ordination.”