John Sentamu

John Sentamu on Easter Sunday 2007

John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu , FRSA (born June 10, 1949 in Kampala , Uganda ) is Archbishop of York , Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of York and Primate of England and thus the second highest dignitary of the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury . He is the first archbishop in England to belong to an ethnic minority.

Life

John Sentamu was born the sixth of thirteen children in a village near Kampala. He studied law at Makerere University in Kampala and worked as a lawyer at the Supreme Court of Uganda. In 1973 he was appointed Supreme Court Justice by Idi Amin . When he failed to comply with an order to acquit a cousin of the dictator, he drew the dictator's wrath and was jailed for 90 days three weeks after his marriage and was tortured there. His decision to become a priest arose from the murder of his friend, Archbishop Janani Luwum . A study place at Cambridge enabled him to flee Uganda.

In England, he studied theology at Cambridge, was ordained a priest of the Anglican Church in 1979 and received his Ph. D. in 1984 . He worked as an auxiliary chaplain, vicar and priest in various parishes until he was ordained suffragan bishop of Stepney in 1996 . In 2002 he was appointed Bishop of Birmingham .

Sentamu was naturalized in England and is now a citizen of Uganda and the United Kingdom .

In 2005 he was elected Archbishop of York by the Chapter, following political tradition on the proposal of the Prime Minister.

In 2008 the University of Cambridge awarded him an honorary doctorate .

Web links

Commons : John Sentamu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography on Parliament.uk
• Biography of John Sentamu on the official website

predecessor	Office	successor
Mark Santer	Bishop of Birmingham 2002–2005	Michael Whinney
David Hope	Archbishop of York since 2005	-