Backing for Dr Sentamu to get top post

I AM disgusted and saddened to read (Yorkshire Post, April 23) that Dr John Sentamu has reportedly been the victim of malicious racism just because he is in the running to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

John Sentamu is just what the Church in this country needs – a breath of fresh air. A man of God who is not afraid to speak out in a way that everyone understands and who stands firmly by the teachings of the word of God and of whom the Press have taken notice many times.

Well, I for one hope that he is chosen to be Archbishop of Canterbury.

God Bless him. The ultimate decision is in God’s hands anyway.

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

I WAS surprised to read that the top echelons of the Anglican Church is infested with a sort of snobbish racism, they must think it is still the 19th century.

I consider Dr John Sentamu to be the best Archbishop we have had in the York diocese.

He is not afraid to put on his flat cap and wellies to get among the people, he calls “a spade a spade” and is not infected with the religious jargon that we hear so often from leaders of the Church.

His down-to-earth attitude will help to make him a splendid leader of the Anglican Church, and let’s face it, the competition for such an appointment is negligible.

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Bradford.

WITH regard to the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams wishing religious education should stay “central” in schools, his own Church, always a broad Church, is so much so now that it contains within it diametrically opposed opinions on both the structure and form of the Church and some of its teachings in the 21st century worldwide.

Matron and caring staff

From: B Murray, Halifax Road, Sheffield.

SOME years ago, I worked in a hospital for the long-stay elderly. It was well-run and the patients had good care.

Although there were qualified staff on the wards, much of the general care of the patients was undertaken by partly trained care staff who were dedicated and caring (Tom Richmond, Yorkshire Post, April 21). There was also a very strict matron who was aware of everything happening on her wards.

I am sure that this system could be used today and particularly as the cost of the care staff was quite small.

Celebrating inborn gift

From: Ken Hartford, Durham Mews, Beverley.

WHEN I entered the teaching profession in 1960, I was living in Aylesbury (now part of Milton Keynes) and for two years I led classes in shorthand and typing mainly in that area, but also for about a year in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

Eventually I got a secure job in Bridlington and was appointed to be in charge of Business Studies there until 1980 when I was able to accept early retirement, leaving most of the preparatory work for Computer Studies to Mr Garry Rudd, my loyal assistant at the school site which then became the main college building. Garry very kindly credited me with the donkey work of setting it up.

It wasn’t until 1985 that I gained my BA degree. I continued to do teaching work both in Worcestershire and East Yorkshire on a part-time basis right up to the new Millennium and beyond at Hull University. I taught adults to write their life stories. This school-masterish behaviour is, I think, inborn, and I successfully used it even with Japanese prisoners of war – amazingly effective, in 1946, 1947 and 1948.

As a result, most of my writing is autobiographical, fairly scholarly, but hardly academic. It is all down to earth experience – rational, systematic and largely self-achieved by hard work and a positive attitude towards life.

Since my very early retirement I’ve applied this level of learning largely to green politics and the arts which my family have used and built upon very wisely.

Some people might interpret this lifestyle as fraudulent. I deny that I have had as practical a life as the average university lecturer. Diversity of skills was my in-born gift.