Archbishop-designate made honorary Druid. (News in Brief).

Wales -- The future Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was made an honorary Druid at a colourful pageant in St. David's, Wales, on August 5. He was one of about two dozen new members inducted into the Gorsedd, Wales' main literary society, at a ceremony held in a mist-shrouded field jutting out into the Irish Channel. He chose the bardic name of ap Aneurin, a tribute both to a 6th-century Welsh poet and to Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Party politician who founded the National Health Service.

A number of English papers were surprised that Dr. Williams would accept this honour, and he had to issue a statement saying that their suggestion that the Gorsedd is associated with paganism is deeply offensive. A Welsh politician, who is a member of the Gorsedd, said, "It is an old form of induction, there is no worshipping of any pagan gods of the kind. It is simply a rather quaint induction. From there on it's a vehicle for assisting the development of the Welsh language and culture, and nothing can be wrong with that."

Archdruid Robyn Lewis, who presided over the ceremony, expressed regret that Dr. Williams was going to Canterbury: "He is a fluent Welsh speaker for a start, and that will be wasted in Canterbury, wasted on the desert air" (Nat. Post, Aug 6/02).