One senior church source…said: “He is orthodox, he is experienced as a vicar and a bishop, he is self-deprecating, he leads. He has street cred, he is well known in the Anglican Communion…The African bishops are delighted they have a black brother as Archbishop of York. He would be an excellent Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Outside of the west end of York Minster today, 13 willing volunteers from local churches will be submerged in a tank of water in a series of open-air baptisms that have become a hallmark of John Sentamu’s time in the Church of England’s northern province.

The Archbishop of York, who will preside, said: “These people are very brave – not just because they’re getting baptised outdoors in the Yorkshire spring but because they are publicly declaring that they are making a U-turn from sin, evil and the ways of the world and becoming followers of Christ.

“From now on they will, by the help of the Holy Spirit and members of the church, do things differently.”

He may have been speaking of the hardy souls braving the water, but could just as readily have been thinking of his own journey. Since the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced his resignation, Dr Sentamu has emerged as the frontrunner.

The “Anyone But York” campaign, disseminated by liberal opponents in the immediate aftermath of Dr Williams’s announcement, shows signs of running out of steam.

As consultations begin immediately after Easter on who will succeed Dr Williams, top sources said Dr Sentamu would be the preferred choice of a majority in not just the Church of England, but also the majority of the 37 other provinces around the world.

Significantly, Dr Sentamu would also be the preferred choice for senior Catholics in Britain and in Rome. “As you know, he has a great devotion to Oscar Romero and wears his wooden cross,” said one well-informed source. The Archbishop of San Salvador was assassinated in 1980. The pectoral crosses are made in El Salvador and sold by the Catholic aid charity Cafod in Britain to raise awareness of Romero and raise funds for charitable work.

Dr Sentamu still does not wear a clerical collar, having cut it up on television in protest at the rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. His own background as a lawyer and judge in Uganda, and a victim of the persecution of Idi Amin, means he is regarded as the ideal candidate to sort out the church.

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