Britain’s first black archbishop today beat the drums for a new Church of England yesterday - both literally and metaphorically.

Sentamu "Ebor", the new Archbishop for York, as he wishes to be known, beat the bongo drums as his wife Margaret and two adult children showed a largely white congregation stiff with cold how to warm themselves up by dancing to the tune of African songs.

The two-hour installation of the new Archbishop at York Minster began with long processions, formularies, articles and orderings, replete with all the colourful pomp and ceremony synonymous with the traditional Church of England.

But the arrival of a troupe of bare-chested Ugandan dancers from St Matthew’s church in Stratford, east London, sporting ostrich plumes, leopardskin leotards and with one boy in an Arsenal t-shirt, brought with it a scent of the warm African air of change promised by this new Archbishop.

Their Bwola dance of "rejoicing and thanksgiving", complete with drums and ululations, warmed the souls of a congregation of 3,000 whose freezing condition was aptly described in the subsequent Gospel reading from St Matthew,‘Lord save us, we are perishing!’ And in a bracing sermon, Dr Sentamu himself warmed them further as he officially began his battle to put fire back into the belly of the established church.

Members of the Church of England had become "consumers of religion" and not disciples of Jesus Christ, he said. The vital issue facing both Church and nation was "the loss of this country’s long tradition of wisdom which brought to birth the English nation."

"For me, the vital issue facing the Church in England and the nation, is the loss of this country’s long tradition of Christian wisdom which brought to birth the English nation," said Dr Sentamu.

"For the Church in England must once again be a beacon by which the people of England can orient themselves in an unknown ocean by offering them the Good News of God in Christ in practical and relevant way to their daily lives," he continued.

"Having shed an empire and lost a missionary zeal, has this great nation, and mother of parliamentary democracy, also lost a noble vision for the future? We are getting richer and richer as a nation, but less and less happy. The Church in England must rediscover her self-confidence and self-esteem that united and energised the English people those many centuries ago when the disparate fighting groups embraced the Gospel."

He said that throughout English history the Church had played a major socialising and civilising role by uniting the English and conferring nationhood on them.

Quoting Michael Ramsey, a former Archbishop of York and Canterbury, he said: "Why have we in England turned this glorious Gospel of life in the Spirit into a cumbersome organisation that repels, and whose people are dull and complacent?" Christians should go and make friends with Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, agnostics and atheists, not with the aim of converting them but to create understanding.

Their missionary zeal should be directed instead at the 72 per cent of the country’s population who in the last census said they were Christian.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Tree stump 'shows image of Virgin Mary'
• BBC drops Strictly judge for younger model
• Trafalgar Square 'reduced to a spectacle'