Rowan Williams: Don't go looking for a perfect church

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams says he once considered becoming a Catholic.

He also admits in an interview with Premier Christian Radio that he finds the Anglican Church "constantly exasperating".

It was the desire to become a monk that made him consider joining the Catholic fold but he was "brought back again and again to the fact that, well, this is where God put you".

"Don't go looking for a perfect church, don't go looking for an ideal church – the one you'd invent if you had the choice. Just inhabit the place where God has put you," he says during the interview.

He also considered joining the Orthodox Church after attending a Russian Orthodox liturgy where he was "overwhelmed by the experience of beauty, worship, mystery and excitement".

"But I couldn't quite cope with the idea that you had to uproot yourself culturally. Although the Anglican Church is constantly exasperating, I just found 'that's the church'," he says.

In the interview, Dr Williams talked about his involvement in community projects as a student and how he was at one point undecided over becoming a social worker or a priest.

"But I think I recognised that would be saying 'no' to quite a bit of what energised me and going forward for ordination and theological study wasn't saying 'no' to all the concerns about community and justice," he says.

The interview is to be broadcast tonight at 10pm on Premier Christian Radio.