From a man who lives in a palace.
Humility and frugility are tennets (or should be) of Christianity.
Setting an example rather than upholding the social order would make us all, at least, methodists.The Church needs the State more than the State needs the Church.
Reformation when ?

robert everitt, wolverhampton,

That wicked greedy capitalists, taking money and controlling the poor and vulnerable.

Next they'll be dictating to people what their views should be about homosexuality, abortion, adultery, stem cell research, GM crops, euthanasia.

Or am I confusing it with religion?

Matt, Cardiff,

I believe much will be expected from people who have much, meaning that even city high-fliers should give till it hurts. However, wealth disparities often result from meritocracy. If people are shrewd with money, they will probably become fabulously wealthy, if not, they will fall into debt.

Graeme Phillips, London, UK

Perhaps the right rev should just poddle on back to his (free)opulent grace & favour appartments and stop trying to pontificate about stuff he knows nothing about.

Nothing worse than someone with no life experience telling us where we've all gone wrong.

David, St Albans, UK

There is another pernicious aspect of extreme disparities in wealth. It creates its own political weather. Policies and attitudes adapt to the preservation of this advantage at the cost of constructive arrangements that would be more beneficial to the general population. Since this disparity is substantially artificial, not in the least an economic necessity, it creates a correspondingly contrived society, which is exemplified in Britain today by spin doctors and high levels of violent crime.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Charles,

where do you get your figures from? I googled this from the BBC which puts the Archbishop's salary at mor like 50k:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7366532.stm

John McD, San Francisco, ca, USA

Why should schools have to do this ? Surely parents have the responsibility of bringing up their children to understand how to handle money. Why should teachers have to apply the sticking plaster to every perceived problem in society ?

john, nottingham,

This guy is more detached from real life than the government. He may have made a little more sense had he said "footballers" rather than "city high fliers". How many young people idolise city workers!?
Despite his deranged logic, he does have a point about the 'rich / poor' gap - but this isn't news

Robert Pawlowicz, Coventry, UK

High Flyers earn too much and Rowan talketh rubbish too much.

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

He is spot on. Time for a revolution anyone?

judy, Liverpool, England

I se this guy has crawled out from unders a stone again, i thought he had been sacked.

FMD, Chipping Norton, England

People born into poverty need something more urgent that classes in how to manage money - they need money! This man does seem to get the maximum amount of publicity for merely saying that he sympathises with people. I wonder if he pays a mortgage on his palace!

Des, Edinburgh,

This article should have reported that the BBC interviewer was uninterested in what Dr WIlliams had to say on poverty and debt and focused instead on leading questions on top-end earnings. Dr Williams comes out of it quite well. Not so the BBC or the Times.

James, Hong Kong, China

open up a trust fund / hedge fund purely for the poor and destitute - and don't allow "all" of it to be spent on the administering of it !!! I agree with neil , the churches have a lot of money and property that could be used by the poor - you simply count the numbers of people and provide that much

paul, aus,

Rowan Williams should keep his unelected opinions firmly to himself: has anyone ever looked at just how much money is floating around in the church?!

Neil, Barbican, London, UK

As always i support I support Dr Rowan Williams, although
Dr Rowa williams will find it's not an easy subject to help those who can't help them selves, but i am sure the good feeling of our church goers is right, i hope people in money
business will understand what Dr Williams is saying??????

Cllr Ken Tiwari (Independent), Oxford , United Kingdom

the government has done plenty to help us students with debts, to the point where i would consider my £24,000 loan not a debt at all. if i don't earn i don't pay, repayments are linked to my income, and it is automatically paid back from my salary before i get the chance to spend it. its free money.

bonita, egham,

You seem to have it in for the archbish. You ignore his message in the headline and prioritise a side-issue in your opening paragraph. I suppose 'Archbishop calls for more education in financial literacy and responds cautiously to interviewer's goad on inequality' would be boring.

James, Hong Kong, China

That's rich (literally!), coming from the Church.

P Robbins, Cornwall,

Paulson's fund was up 60% last year but at what cost? What commodity prices duid he help spike through speculation thereby dribving the cost to the poor up? Or what businesses did he buy with a view to laying off the employees and plundering the assets? The world would be better without him/his ilk.

Billy Barnett, HK,

Silence on Archbishop's palaces, then? What about the £1m being spent on York? And what of the reputed £2.5m spent on Pullens End in Headington 2 years ago for the Bishop of Oxford?

Oh, and give us taxpayers' cash to sort crumbling churches, please. Where has that Christian conscience gone?

Alistair, Edinburgh, UK

Rowan Williams is 100% correct and he mirrors the Pope's views too. Interesting to see the bankers who have crawled out of cyberspace to try to defend their excessive behavioursin this section. If you all left UK would be a nicer more wholesome place to live, we can replace your "contribution".

Janet, London,

@ cwr.... Nothing to do with Rowan...? Not like their main man over turned the tables of the money lenders or anything. I am not even religious myself - but such matters have ALWAYS been a concern for Christians, and i think that is a good thing that those of such faith do care.

Ste, Manchester, UK

Obviously a few highly paid bankers here, going by the antipathy towards the archbishop. Why shouldn't he comment on a subject that has an important bearing on the welfare of society? Bankers are mostly overpaid for what they do. And that is most clear now with the financial mess they have created. The perverse job structures in our society allow people of very modest abilities, and immodest egos, to earn for more than the value they create. I'm with Rowan Williams on this one.

David, Guildford,

Charles - that comment is just plain wrong. Even a junior investment banker (still in his 20s) can easily earn twice/three times what the Archbishop of Canterbury does. A senior banker will likely earn somewhere between 10 and 100 times as much. That is the reality and it is fairly insane.

Ian, London, UK

If they didnt take their 8-hour coach trip holidays to spain, sky sports and fags they wouldn't be getting in debt!

James Hathaway, London, UK

Feels strange to agree with this Archbishop but on this he is 100 percent right.

Dean, Southampton, England

Its a combination of money management and very hard work. Fortunately, for being in the office 7 days a week and paying attention to my finances I get rewarded. The day that stops, the day that this economy stops working and I, like many others, will simply leave - it will be Goodbye Gordon. Can you guess what would happen to the budget deficit then......

AJB, London,

Usury was (rightly) banned by the Church for hundreds of years partly because debt makes a poor man poorer. It makes the money-lenders very rich and also serves to control the population. I applaud the Archbishop for finally facing up this issue...but I am concerned about his personal safety.

Peter Baker , Fareham , England

The archbishop earns around £83,000. With the average salary in the UK being around about £26,000 he earns 219% more than most people, he will also recieve a final salary pension on retirement - Who then is he to comment on the salaries of bankers (most who proabably earn a similar amount).

Charles, Southampton, England

"astronomical sums with no clear rationale behind them"
Let me help you with the math, Archbish... it's called 2 and 20.
I think Paulson's fund was up 60% last year. On $28bn that's roughly $17bn. 20% of that is $3.3bn, done. The rationale is OBVIOUS.

Nick, London,

Rowan Williams clearly hasn't learnt from recent episodes... why is he again commenting about things that are nothing to do with him, and he clearly has limited knowledge?

He says it himself, his focus should be on the poorest end of the spectrum, why is he commenting on bankers salaries?

cwr, London, UK

You get what you deserved. If demand is high, then one's service will be paid more. Not every average Joe on the street has the knowledge and know-how to run the financial systems you know.

Chris, Cambridge,