York Guides

The Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Rev John Sentamu, has become the Church of England’s first black archbishop.

The Ugandan-born cleric takes over as Archbishop of York from Dr David Hope, who quit in February to become a parish priest in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

Bishop Sentamu said his appointment to the second-highest post in the Church of England was "an exciting prospect".

He added that the Church needed to regain its vision and confidence and be ready to take risks.

At a news conference, Bishop Sentamu said he looked forward to working with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to spread the Christian message.

"It is imperative that the Church regains her vision and confidence in mission, developing ways that will enable the Church of England to reconnect imaginatively with England."

Asked if this meant the Church had lost its way in recent years, he responded: "We just need to reconnect, we just need to revitalise ourselves, we just need a fresh vision."

Dr Williams welcomed the news and praised the bishop’s efforts to combat racism.

Bishop Sentamu worked on inquiries into the 1993 racist killing of Stephen Lawrence and the stabbing of Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor in 2000.

Dr Williams said: "He is someone who has always combined a passion for sharing the gospel with a keen sense of the problems and challenges of our society, particularly where racism is concerned."

Before moving

The 56-year-old was educated in Uganda, where he practised as a barrister and was an outspoken critic of Idi Amin’s regime, before moving to the UK in 1974.

He was ordained in 1979, serving as assistant chaplain at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

From 1979 to 1982 he was chaplain at HM Remand Centre, Latchmere House, and curate of St Andrew’s Ham, Southwark, south London.

After serving in a succession of London parishes, he was appointed Bishop of Stepney in 1996 and Bishop of Birmingham in 2002.

In Birmingham, he has been a prominent campaigner on gun crime and also worked closely with MG Rover workers after the car firm collapsed.

City of York MP Hugh Bayley, who worked with the then Bishop of Stepney on anti-poverty initiatives when he was a social security minister in the late 1990s, welcomed his appointment.

"I think it is an excellent appointment for York and for the Church of England," said Mr Bayley.

"I know from work I have done with him in the past that he has a strong commitment to tackling poverty in the UK and I hope that he will bring that to his work in the north of England."

Bishop Sentamu, whose appointment was made by the Queen on the recommendation of Prime Minister Tony Blair, is expected to move to York in the late autumn.

Bishop Sentamu is a mould-breaker in more ways than one.

Not only is he the Church of England’s first black primate; he is also seen as possessing street cred.

He is a trusted adviser to the government on race and the inner cities, yet does not shrink from criticising it.

And he speaks the sort of language most of us use, without taking refuge in ecclesiastical gobbledygook.

He has said the Church of England contains institutional racism, as a room full of smokers contains smoke.

He knows plenty about racism. He’s been on the receiving end of it often enough.

During his six years as bishop of Stepney in east London he was stopped and searched eight times by the police.

What upset him most was the sudden change in the officers’ behaviour when they realised his identity.

He said: "When they discovered who I was, the way I was then treated was very different. They should treat everybody with respect, with dignity."

Another time, he recalls, four young white men spat at him and said: "Nigger, go back."

He replied: "You have wasted your saliva."

When he moved from Stepney to the West Midlands, Bishop Sentamu said he wanted to be known as the Bishop for Birmingham, not of it.

His work there to support the MG Rover car workers and against gun crime shows what he meant.

When the Criminal Justice Bill proposed longer prison sentences, the former Ugandan High Court judge retorted: "Do our politicians seriously believe that increasing the severity of sentences would put an end to the shootings?"

In some respects, Bishop Sentamu conforms to the perception of Anglican bishops as left-leaning liberals.

He opposed the Iraq war, and urged President Bush to apologise for the torturing of prisoners of war by US troops.

Asylum seekers

Yet he has praised the UK Government for its controversial plans to hold asylum seekers and educate their children in special centres before their cases are decided.

Bishop Sentamu is his own man, following his own agenda and no-one else’s.

So, he may prove a surprise during his time as the church’s second most senior bishop.

Archbishops of York sometimes make the transition to Canterbury, though by no means always.

There must be a chance that Bishop Sentamu will one day lead the Church of England.

In the meantime, his appointment will hearten the many black Anglican parishioners (and few black clergy) in England, and could help to ease the tensions between the English church and some African bishops over sexuality.

A politically astute appointment, then? Yes. But it owes at least as much to the qualities of the man as to calculations of statecraft.

And John Sentamu does have the common touch.

The British, he once said, got very excited watching cricket and football: "So I say to myself, why can’t they put a bit of that into the church?"