Williams favourite to replace Carey

The Archbishop of Wales has emerged as the choice of the Church of England's ruling body's members to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

A poll of members of the General Synod, by The Times, shows today that the Most Rev Rowan Williams is the clear favourite to succeed Dr George Carey over the Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali. If Dr Williams were to become

Archbishop of Canterbury, the former Oxford professor would become the first non-Church of England bishop to take the office in more than 300 years.

Out of the 220 who took part in the survey - 42 per cent of the synod's 516 clergy and lay members - the Archbishop of Wales received 61 votes, to the 41 in favour of the Bishop of Rochester. Third in the survey was the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, with 29 votes.

A secret meeting, made up of 13 voting members, will meet to trim a list of 15 candidates to a short list of two before Dr Carey retires in October.

Dr Williams, 51, a theologian, philosopher and poet is from an Anglo-Catholic background. He supports women bishops and gay priests and may well fall victim to a block veto by evangelical members of the commission. However, he may not even want the post. He has described it previously as "undoable" and a "nightmare".