The church militant

The new Archbishop will face a church riven by warring tribes. Nicholas Pyke reports

Tony Blair must have known exactly what to expect when he picked Dr Rowan Williams, left, poet, scholar and Christian Socialist. The next Archbishop of Canterbury is disappointed with New Labour. He has condemned plans to invade Iraq and railed against big business for corrupting childhood.

But if the Prime Minister is in for a rough ride, so is Dr Williams, who will have to demonstrate similar bravery in the field of church politics. His appointment has been greeted with enthusiasm and, in most quarters, optimism. But the controversies that dogged Dr George Carey's tenure have not gone away. Regular church attendance continues to decline. Although doctrinally orthodox, Dr Williams's sympathy for homosexual clergy has already angered conservative elements in the growing evangelical wing of the church. And despite his mystical leanings, Dr Williams's support for women bishops has alarmed the Anglo-Catholics, who are threatening schism. We asked clergy from four different parts of a frequently divided church what they make of a leader who wants to help Christianity "recapture the imagination of our people and our culture".

The evangelical

'He has shown contempt'

The Rev William Taylor is Rector of St Helen's Bishopsgate in the City of London, a thriving parish attracting young professionals. The church is wealthy, influential and part of a growing evangelical movement. The church takes a conservative approach to faith, particularly on sexual issues, and represents a strain of evangelical belief that has been openly critical of Dr Williams's support for gay clergy.

"We would like to congratulate Dr Williams, who steps into a position of enormous responsibility and follows in the footsteps of a number of great Christian leaders. We shall be praying for him as he prepares for his new role. My concern is in his ability to unite those with whom he disagrees. Some of his views in the area of gender and sexuality are in conflict with the teaching of the Bible. He has labelled those who disagree with him as adopting an "abstract fundamentalist" use of scripture and of applying "narrow and crude" criteria. This suggests a degree of contempt for the views of millions of Christians. But we are told he is a humble man, and my hope is he will make a clear statement to the effect that his previous statements were ill-advised. We look forward to him applying his abilities and intellect to proclaiming faithfully the person and teaching of Jesus."

The gay clergyman

'At last, the dawning of the light'

The Rev Chris Wardale, 56, is one of only two Anglican vicars in a publicly acknowledged same-sex relationship. He runs Holy Trinity, a large 19th-century parish church in Darlington. The current Archbishop of Canterbury, the evangelical George Carey, is opposed to gay priests and Chris Wardale had been led to expect that he would never get another post in the church.

"I think that, finally, reality might dawn upon the Church of England. Over the years a small minority of people have thought of themselves as being the power-brokers who can shut off bits of the church that present problems or criticism. I don't think Rowan will tolerate that. He will make people face their fears and hauntings. He is sensible. He has the wisdom that comes with being an archbishop already: he knows how the power structures work and how to use them. People see the large shaggy beard and maybe imagine he's naive, but there's a very tough cookie underneath. For me personally a light has dawned in the greyness that has descended for the past 12 years. The banging on the closet doors became positively deafening. Then silence. But now I think we'll hear the scratching of locks being undone. It will be a gentle process, and it won't happen all at once. But I look forward to much greater openness. I think there's a sense of excitement in the church with this appointment. Already the phone has started to ring again."

The Anglo-Catholic

'We may have to part'

Father David Houlding runs All Hallows in Hampstead, north London, where he has been vicar for 11 years. A leading figure in the Anglo-Catholic movement, he is fundamentally opposed to the prospect of women bishops. He is Master of the Society of the Holy Cross, a group of 600 Anglican Catholics, and chair of the Catholic Synod Group.

"I think it's an exciting time for the Church. Rowan Williams is an outstanding person with enormous intellectual authority. He will be able to talk about the Christian faith in ways that lots of people find compelling, even if they disagree with him on some points. He's someone who will be listened to. I don't expect to agree with him about everything. The Catholic group will have to do much work with him to find a way forward. Women bishops threaten the church with division; it's a divisive issue. We don't know how he's going to handle it, but I think he's a man who will listen. He'll be supportive to people who don't agree with him. But in the end he'll do what he believes to be right. He's a man of integrity – and in a way that will be our difficulty. We will appreciate the fact that he's listening. But if he pushes through an agenda of female ordination, we'll have to part company, and that will be difficult because he is a man we respect. If you don't recognise the bishop's authority you have a problem. We may have to move along somewhere else, in the direction of the Roman Catholic Church possibly, unless a separate space can be created within the Church of England itself."

The woman priest

'Rowan is very inclusive'

Since being ordained deacon in 1988, Canon Nerissa Jones MBE has worked mostly in deprived urban areas of London and Coventry. Now she is responsible for five rural parishes in Dorset, including the villages of Loders, Askerswell and Powerstock, near Bridport.

"I'm delighted that we have got someone who has a teenager and a young child. It makes a great deal of difference to how the general public view the Church of England. Rowan is in touch with everyday life. I'm pleased that Tony Blair was not put off having him, as he knows his views on going to war. Rowan's not going to pull his punches. He knows what he's talking about when it comes to social justice. I admire his open attitude towards gay people in the church. Whether they admit it or not, all bishops have ordained gay men and women. It's inevitable. And here we have someone who has never had negative thoughts on the subject of women priests. He's never had to be "brought round", nor has he held the view that "now is not the time for women to play a greater role". He's fully in favour of women bishops. He said so years ago. He has taken the biblical teachings of Christ very seriously, and interpreted them as inclusive. You can't exclude people on the grounds of how God has made them."

The politics

By Andrew Brown

In a war with Iraq, he will be leader of the opposition

There are two things that everyone knows about the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams: that he was incomparably the best candidate for the job; and that he will be an irritant to the Government, and perhaps more than that – a kind of moral beacon to the opposition. This is not what we expect of a state church, but there has also been another and opposite tradition of bishops who did not hesitate – humbly – to upset the powerful, and Dr Williams will find his place there.

The most recent example was almost the most unlikely: Lord Runcie, a pig-breeding former Scots Guards officer with an MC, seemed in the 1980s to supply a more coherent opposition to Thatcherism than the Labour Party. However much New Labour may come to resent Dr Williams, they will be unable to surpass the hatred which lashed down on Dr Runcie from some Conservatives.

The immediate problem facing the Government is how Dr Williams will express his condemnation of an American invasion of Iraq, if, or when, this goes ahead without the approval of the UN. Assuming that the war goes ahead, and is still in progress when Dr Williams takes office, his position will in some ways resemble that of Dr George Bell, the Second World War Bishop of Chichester, whose condemnations of the strategic bombing campaign against Germany made him a figure of hatred. "To bomb cities as cities," he said, "is a wrong deed, whether done by the Nazis or by ourselves."

At a time when the memory of German mass bombings of British cities was still very fresh, this was strong stuff. It almost certainly cost him the See of Canterbury when Archbishop Temple died in 1944.

But most bishops do not clash with governments over foreign policy, but over domestic issues. The Church of England – along with all the other Christian churches – has maintained a consistent and principled opposition to the immigration and asylum policies of successive governments, without, apparently, bringing its influence to bear at all. The same is the case with its call for more humane prisons.

Historically, the really big arguments between church and state were about sex and taxes. The prototype of all turbulent priests was the man for whom the expression was coined, Thomas a' Becket, who first broke with the king because of his resistance to higher taxation. But his defiance of King Henry II cost him his life in 1170.

Cardinal Wolsey, as Archbishop of York, died while awaiting execution for failing to get Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon; Thomas Cranmer, who as Archbishop of Canterbury had pronounced for Henry the divorce that Wolsey could not get from the Pope, was burnt alive for heresy by Henry and Catherine's daughter Mary.

This fate does not threaten Dr Williams, no matter what decision he makes about the marriage of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles. Today both bishops and prime ministers accept that power derives from the electorate, and only indirectly from God. But when the electorate is divided – as it will be over Iraq – Dr Williams may well find himself unofficial leader of the opposition.