Rowan Williams, known by his baptismal name Tesfa Mikael, is a convert to the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church and serves as Archdeacon at Tserha Tsion, Saint Mary of Zion Church in London, UK.

 This church places central emphasis on mission outside cradle Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox communities and conducts services in English and Gəʾəz (to see previous services, go to their YouTube channel). With his concern for pastoral liturgy, Rowan began translating Täʾammərä Marəyam in 2011, as up to that point only Wallis Budge’s One Hundred and Ten Miracles of Our Lady Mary had been in use. Currently, he is now working on a lectionary of these translations for the whole liturgical year, which also includes translations of Täʾammərä Iyyäsus (The Miracles of Jesus). He has shared some of these translations with the PEMM project.

Rowan’s academic training began in Ethiopia, where he earned a Bachelor of Theology degree from Holy Trinity Theological College, Addis Ababa. He then pursued a Master of Arts in Theology, Ministry and Mission at The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, UK. For both his undergraduate and postgraduate research, Rowan focused on liturgical theology. He has also collaborated with Dr Ralph Lee on Gəʾəz manuscripts of the Book of Deuteronomy for the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament (THEOT).