Hopes of female archbishop as Sentamu retires
Church faces calls to consider female candidate when Archbishop of York steps down in 2020
Britain’s first black archbishop has announced his retirement, paving the way for a woman to potentially take the role. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, will step down in 2020, with many hoping the Church appoints a woman to its second most senior clerical role.
THE Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has announced his retirement, paving the way for a woman to be appointed to the role for the first time.
Dr Sentamu will step down on June 7 2020, three days before his 71st birthday. He was granted special dispensation from the Queen to extend his duties beyond the Church’s compulsory retirement age of 70. The Ugandan-born clergyman was enthroned as Archbishop of York in 2005. He was the first black archbishop in the Church’s history and the ceremony broke with tradition, featuring drums and dancers.
Many are hoping that his retirement will allow the Church to take another leap forward by appointing a woman to its second most senior clerical role – behind the Archbishop of Canterbury.
A Church of England spokesman acknowledged that the prospect was “entirely possible”.
Dr Sentamu’s announcement will prompt a lengthy recruitment process led by the Crown Nominations Commission, which will choose from the pool of bishops. That pool now includes 17 women, all of whom have been appointed since the law was changed in 2014 when the Church’s General Synod voted to allow the consecration of women after 40 years of debate and campaigning.
Among them are the Rt Rev Sarah Mullally, elected as Bishop of London, the third-most senior role in the Church, earlier this year.
Bishop Mullally has expressed hope that her appointment would mean women taking more leadership roles in the Church, including archbishops.
“The challenge is that people often think that, once you’ve appointed a woman, you’ve dealt with the issue. You haven’t,” she told The Observer earlier this year. The Rt Rev Jackie Searle, Bishop of Crediton, paid tribute to Dr Sentamu, who presided over her consecration just last week. “There will be a great deal of thought, prayer and wide consultation before the next Archbishop of York is appointed... and no doubt a great deal of speculation,” she said.
“The joy is that for the first time in Church history both women and men will be able to be considered for the role – alleluia!”
The Rev Dr Elizabeth Macfarlane, chaplain at St John’s College Oxford and a campaigner for women’s rights in the Church of England, also welcomed the fact that women were now eligible for the post. “There are senior women who are well able to be really considerable candidates for that role, and I would hope that they would be taken seriously,” she said.
In a statement, Dr Sentamu said he had decided to announce his retirement now to allow the widest possible timeframe to find a successor.
“I am full of joy and expectation to see all that God is doing and will be doing in this diocese and in the Northern Province over the coming months,” he said. The Archbishop, who fled his native Uganda in the Seventies before studying at Cambridge University, has been an outspoken public figure.
In 2007, he cut up his clerical collar live on the BBC’S Andrew Marr show in a protest over Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, said Dr Sentamu’s service was something to “rejoice in with great gratitude”.
A Church of England spokesman said it was anticipated that the position would be filled in time for the Lambeth Conference in October 2020.
In more than 13 years as Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu has been happy to defy convention. The Church of England’s first black primate, his enthronement in 2005 at York Minster was accompanied by drums and dancers. Even the proposed manner of his departure is unusual. The Queen has agreed to extend his tenure past his 70th birthday to June 2020. He has announced his retirement date now to give the Church time to find a successor, though it does invite the question as to why it is thought necessary for senior clerics to step down in the prime of their lives. The Ecclesiastical Offices (Age Limit) Measure 1975 seems outdated in an era where life expectancy has risen so dramatically.
His will be a hard act to follow. Dr Sentamu has brought a distinctive voice to his ministry, never one to shy away from forthright opinions, though he has largely escaped the opprobrium that has rained down on his fellow archbishop in Canterbury for taking political positions usually associated with the Left. Yet he has been no less controversial, attacking the focus of public policy on economic growth, lamenting the evils of inequality and calling for wealth redistribution. He recently denounced the introduction of the Universal Credit benefit as unjust and lacking compassion.
Perhaps when the Church chooses a successor it might concentrate more on religious duties or at least recognise that without economic growth there would be no wealth to redistribute. Dr Sentamu’s retirement opens up the prospect of another first in the Church. Now that women can be ordained as bishops there should be no barrier to a female archbishop, either of York or Canterbury.