Last Sunday morning, The Sunday Telegraph came out with the baffling headline: “Age of mystery for Archbishop of York”.
This is important since John Sentamu is a favourite to succeed Rowan Williams as leader of the Church of England next September.
The British newspaper reported that Sentamu’s official date of birth is meant to be 10 June 1949, making him 63.
However, a series of documents signed by the Archbishop imply he was actually born in 1947, making him two years older.
This two year difference would not be so important if Sentamu was not in the position he is. At 65 he would be too old for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury as he would reach the Church’s mandatory retirement age of 70 before the Lambeth Conference in 2018.
If Sentamu really was born in 1947 he would not be able to become the Church’s Primate.
The mystery seems to revolve around three forms which carry his signature: in two of these, dated 1966, the Archbishop of York, who is originally from Uganda, indicated 1947 as his year of birth but then appears to have replaced the 7 with a 9.
In the third form - Dr Sentamu’s registration as a director of the Church’s central board of finance in 2005 – the date 1947 was never corrected.
The Sunday Telegraph writes that one clue is found in an article published in 1988, which reported that Sentamu was the first African clergyman to be elected to the General Synod, at the age of 40.
How Sentamu felt about the news is unknown but the news story received a prompt response from the archbishop, through his spokesman, Kerron Croce.
He wrote to the Editor of The Sunday Telegraph, Ian MacGregor, expressing his displeasure, which is evident in the open Letter published on the Archbishop of York’s website.
The archbishop’s spokesman refers to the news piece as a “non-story” and lamented that “due care was not taken in checking that the date of birth had been correctly entered in some church documents, which continued to cite 1947 though in one case a correction was made.”
Croce, who signed the open letter as Director of Communications for the Archbishop of York stated he had already explained this to the newspaper’s reporter, Edward Malnick, but that “he still persisted in writing it up as a live issue and a “mystery” Is there anything mysterious about that?”
A photocopy of John Sentamu’s birth certificate was attached to the letter as confirmation.
Britain now waits to see what the next step will be.