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
John Moore (archbishop of Canterbury) 21 September 1761, he was preferred to the fifth prebendal stall in the church of Durham, and in April 1763, to a canonry at Christ Church, Oxford. On 1 July 1764, he took the degrees of B.D. and D.D. On 19 September 1771, he was made dean of Canterbury, and on 10 February 1775, bishop of Bangor. On the death of Archbishop Frederick Cornwallis, he was translated to the see of Canterbury, 26 April 1783, on the joint recommendation of Bishops Robert Lowth and Richard Hurd, both of whom had declined the primacy. Though not a great ecclesiastic, Moore was