As Rowan Williams retires, guesses on successor rise

When Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams announced suddenly in
mid-March that he will step down at the end of 2012, a short list of
prospective successors swiftly began to circulate.

Williams, 61,
has led the Church of England and the world's 77 million Anglicans since
2002. In January, Williams will serve as master of Magdalene College in
Cambridge, returning him to the academic life that defined his early
years and where he seems most comfortable.

Williams is giving up a
tenure that has been plagued and occasionally scarred by hot-button
issues such as same-sex unions and the threatened breakup of the English
and global church over female and homosexual bishops.