Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", sent from Rome in the year 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams. From the time of Augustine until the 16th century, the Archbishops of Canterbury were
Geoffrey of Canterbury February 1127. He held this position for little more than a year, until in 1128 he was invited to become the first Abbot of Dunfermline, with the monastery of Dunfermline recently being promoted from a priory to an abbey, being refounded with thirteen monks from Canterbury. Dunfermline was a daughter-house of Christ Church, while that Benedictine priory held significant influence in the Kingdom of Scotland. Such influence had been established by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (1058–1093) via the latter's consort, the English princess Margaret of Wessex. During the reign of King