Conger

The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu has criticized the government of South African president Thabo Mbeki for failing to take decisive action over the spiraling crisis in Zimbabwe.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Aug 8 while in Perth, Dr. Sentamu touched upon Lords’ Reform, institutional racism in the Church of England, the 2008 Lambeth Conference, and his relations with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams-denying suggestions that he was an “Archbishop in waiting” for Canterbury.

Asked about the situation in Zimbabwe, Dr. Sentamu lauded the actions of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, saying he “has been actually fairly courageous in the things he’s been saying” in opposition to the regime of strongman Robert Mugabe.

However, the church in Zimbabwe was unable to speak with a single voice as the controversial Dr. Nolbert Kunonga, “the Anglican Bishop of Harare has tended to side more with Mugabe and therefore caused the split within the Christian community.”

Dr. Sentamu stated South Africa should take a greater role in resolving the crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe.

“South Africa could have played a major part in making sure that Mugabe over the last four years at least, does not continue telling the world that actually there isn’t any violence, there isn’t any hunger, there isn’t any starvation, because a lot of Zimbabweans are now refugees in South Africa, and it’s quite obvious that Mugabe’s regime is so brutal, that it is so dictatorial, and a lot of people are dying and starving,” he said.

The Archbishop of York denied he had designs upon Lambeth Palace and rejected press speculation that Dr. Rowan Williams might step down. “Those who say that I’m an Archbishop [of Canterbury] in waiting, I’m sorry, they’re going to be disappointed,” he said.

“The higher the baboon climbs the tree, the more it reveals its rather less attractive parts,” he observed, disclaiming any further ambitions towards higher office in the Church.

Asked about his views on institutional racism within the Church of England, Dr. Sentamu said the Church had no racist policies in effect, “but to say there is institutional racism within the church, yes, that much I’ll accept.”

He likened the climate of the Church of England to a smoke filled room. “You could go into a room when people have been smoking and there isn’t anybody you can see in sight who’s smoking, and you know there has been smoking. That’s what I call institutional racism: you know there are some behaviors that are unacceptable, but you can’t quite pinpoint anybody who’s done it,” he said.

Dr. Sentamu repeated comments made to the Daily Telegraph last month that there was a danger that those who would sit out the 2008 Lambeth Conference were risking exclusion from the Anglican Communion. It was necessary to attend Lambeth, he said, so as to take the Anglican Covenant process forward and find a lasting solution to the current crisis of doctrine and discipline within the Anglican Communion.

He rejected suggestions that a reformed House of Lords exclude the “Lords Spiritual”. Bishops could only be excluded from the Lords, he argued, if the monarchy and the Church of England were disestablished. The role of the Bishops in the House of Lords was “to hold up before the nation the need for God and the need for spiritual dimensions of life,” he said.