Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to visit India next month

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will be visiting India early next month.

The head of the Anglican Church is coming on an invitation by the Church of North India (CNI) and the Church of South India (CSI), two member bodies of the Anglican Communion.

The archbishop is expected to arrive in Calcutta on October 9 after when he would spend two days in the city, visiting hospices, NGOs and churches.

According to a source from the Bishop House in Calcutta, the archbishop is scheduled to visit the Missionaries of Charity, St Peter's Church in Behala and the Bishop's College where he would address a seminar on "contextual theology".

Following a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral which marks 163 years, a civic reception would be held for the archbishop with the guest list including the chief minister, governor, mayor and chief justice of Calcutta High Court.

On the last day of the trip in Calcutta, the archbishop would interact with students and theologians at the premier Bishop's College which was founded by the Church of England in 1820. The institution, being ecumenical in character and composition, has become part of CNI since the Church Union in 1970.

Further, tentatively on October 11, Archbishop Rowans along with his wife would leave to Ranchi where he would interact with the tribal people after which he would visit Nagpur to attend a gathering of the CNI celebrating 40 years of its united journey.

The two-week India tour of the archbishop also includes cities in the South namely Chennai, Bangalore and Trivandrum.

Dr Williams is the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the spiritual head of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion worldwide.