Baptism by full immersion is a radical departure from tradition for Anglicans in the West, more familiar with sprinkling babies with a dollop of water to mark their ‘entrance’ into the kingdom of God.

Immersion graphically depicts the death and resurrection of Christ with which Christians are urged to identify in the New Testament. And the York prelate, who came to Britain in the wake of the seventies’ persecution of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and is the first black clergyman to have risen to such a high office in the Church of England, is keen to encourage a more fervent faith.

In his Easter Day sermon in York Minster he hit out at scholars and academics who were missing the point of Christianity, treating it as an ideology to be studied rather than a faith to be lived. He said: “The mistake of many is to treat the Christian faith like an ideology – looking, as it were, for Jesus Christ among the dead. Beyond doubt study is necessary but Jesus isn’t only someone to be studied; he is someone to be met and lived with every day. He isn’t only a figure in a book – the Bible – even if that book is the greatest in the world; he is a living presence. There are those who regard Jesus as the greatest man who ever lived – but who then died. That won’t do. Jesus isn’t dead – he is alive. He isn’t merely a hero of the past – he is a living reality, the Lord of the present.”

The Most Rev John Sentamu has the honour of following in the footsteps of Archbishop Sandys, who was sent to the Tower of London for opposing Henry VIII but who eventually founded the school that, two centuries later, would nurture none other than William Wordsworth, among the world’s most inspirational poets.

Charles Gardner is a 57-year-old South African-born journalist living in the North of England with a vision to launch a new national newspaper carrying world news from a biblical perspective. He is currently sports editor of the Selby Times and also writes a weekly blog on their website at www.selbytoday.co.uk called Gods World. He is married to Linda, 49, who teaches Christianity at 21 different schools in the major Yorkshire town of Doncaster. Pictured: Charles Gardner with his wife, Linda.