The Most Rev. John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, famously took off the clerical collar and cut it up while appearing on national television in December 2007, declaring he would not wear it again until the dictator Robert Mugabe no longer ruled Zimbabwe.
When TLC contacted Archbishop Sentamu’s office Nov. 22, and seven years after his protest act, a diocesan official declined to say whether the Ugandan-born Sentamu had resumed wearing clerical collars.
“For now he wants to focus on urging people to pray for Zimbabwe,” she said. “The future is still very uncertain.”
Sentamu had tweeted earlier:
It is time to go into the closet, the cellar, the crypt, as Jesus Christ told us and pray for Zimbabwe: for peace, security and the rule of law. “God bless Zimbabwe: guide her ruler, guard her children, and lead her in peace and prosperity. Amen.”
John Martin
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
