Top church job elusive for Uganda's Sentamu

Ugandan John Sentamu may not clinch the top job after a commission set up to find a successor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, failed to agree on a candidate.

If the decision does go against Dr Sentamu, currently the Archbishop of York, the second most senior position in the Anglican church, some fear it could irrevocably divide the church world-wide.

The former Ugandan High Court advocate is one of four men who have been short-listed for the post but according to news reports he is no longer the favourite, with 61-year old Bishop Graham James, who says he does not even want the post, considered the most likely candidate.

Dr Sentamu’s failure so far to nail down the top position is because he remains a controversial figure and there is said to be strong opposition to him becoming Archbishop of Canterbury among senior staff at Lambeth Palace, the headquarters of the church in the UK.

In the UK, Dr Sentamu, a former asylum seeker from Uganda under the regime of Idi Amin, is no longer the bookmakers favourite to succeed Dr Williams.

This has led clerics from Africa and the Middle East to express their concern at a ‘whispering’ campaign to ensure that Dr Sentamu is not chosen.

While a liberal on most issues within the church, Dr Sentamu is in the traditional wing in the sexuality debate and could be opposed by many within the liberal establishment.

Dr Annis , the Primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East said: “I would say that the majority of the people within the Crown Nominations Commission will think very differently from the traditional Anglican views that are widely held within the Anglican Communion in the global south,” he said.

“I just say that it is unfair…It is not for the benefit of the Church, it is not for the benefit of ecumenism, it is not for the benefit of Britain itself to have the Anglican Communion divided.”

He added that while many look to the Church of England as their “mother church”, giving other parts of the Communion so little say in the choice of Archbishop could undermine those links.

Supporters of John Sentamu, the Ugandan born cleric, who was the early favourite to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, have also said his campaign is being undermined by racist critics.

A series of reports in the UK press quoted a senior bishop within the Church of England as making comments such as "Dr Sentamu is quite tribal and the African chief thing comes through.”

Another retired bishop told the Telegraph newspaper “there is something in Sentamu which retains his African views and approach, which can be at one time an asset and another time can be a problem.”

It is notable that he was attacked recently for writing a column for one of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers in Britain, The Sun.

Despite this John Sentamu has continued to speak out on a range of issues, including racism, the plight of young people, the importance of the family, freedom from slavery and injustice.

He has also been active in the wider Anglican community and even met church leaders in Kenya following post-election conflict there in January 2008.

He has been a particularly outspoken on Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe and during a BBC interview with Andrew Marr ripped said: “I’m not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe’s gone.”

Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt warned recently that many of the estimated 55 million Anglicans across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and the Americans felt they had “no say” in the process of selecting a successor for Dr Rowan Williams.

Of particular concern to African clerics is the make-up of the selection committee, the Crown Nominations Commission, which is dominated by liberal-leaning British church leaders, and would be unlikely to represent the traditionalist views of most Anglicans overseas, particularly those living in Africa.

“The voice of the Anglican Communion outside England is not counted as being important,” Dr Annis said recently.

“We still very much look to the Archbishop of Canterbury as the primus inter pares, the spiritual father of the Anglican Communion but the Anglican Communion has no say whatsoever.

"It is giving the impression that we don’t own it at all – it is all something somehow run from England. It would be acceptable in the 19th Century but not now…It is a colonial approach,” he adds.

The issue of sexuality – in particular the debate over gay marriage – and to a lesser extent, the nomination of women bishops within the church, divides opinion.

Nicholas Okoh, head of Nigerian Anglican church, said the current Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, who steps down from his post in December has divided a once happy family.

"He is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarised, bitterly factionalised, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.

"For us, the announcement (of Dr Williams retirement) does not present any opportunity for excitement. It is not good news here, until whoever comes as the next leader pulls back the Communion from the edge of total destruction.”

With the Anglican Crown Nominations Commission failing to agree on a new candidate to put forward to UK Prime Minister David Cameron and the Queen, it remains uncertain when the issue will be resolved.