The Church of England has appointed a Ugandan-born anti-racism campaigner as its first senior black bishop. The Rt Revd John Sentamu was appointed as the Bishop of Birmingham in central England, succeeding the Rt Revd Mark Santer, who retired in May after 15 years in the post. A former assistant Bishop of Stepney in East London, he becomes the first black person to head an Anglican diocese in the United Kingdom.

"I am both delighted and overwhelmed to have been chosen as the eighth bishop of Birmingham," he said at a news conference in Birmingham.

Bishop Sentamu is a high-profile figure who has often accused the Church of England of being institutionally racist. In 1997 he became an adviser to an inquiry into the bungled police investigation of the 1993 killing of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. The inquiry concluded that London police were institutionally racist. In January 2000, the bishop criticised the force after he was stopped and searched by police officers while driving near St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Bishop Sentamu, who left Uganda during dictator Idi Amin's regime in the 1970s, was ordained in 1979 after studying at Cambridge University.

Article from: AP