Archbishop of Canterbury to retire early

LONDON — Archbishop George Carey, the archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world’s 70 million Anglican Christians, announced Jan. 8 he will leave his post Oct. 31, three years before his scheduled retirement in 2005.

Carey, 66, has presided over the Church of England since 1991 during a tumultuous decade in which his domestic church wrestled with women’s ordination and the global Anglican Communion struggled with homosexuality and a growing divide between liberal First World bishops and conservative Third World bishops.

Carey had been contemplating an early retirement since at least 1997, when he told the Reuters news agency that the job was more demanding than he expected.