Margaret Sentamu

About Margaret Sentamu

Born and raised in Uganda, East Africa, Margaret Sentamu read Literature at Makerere University, Kampala, and taught for a short while before coming to the UK in the early 1970s.

She took time out to raise the family and during that time she worked on a voluntary basis mainly for church and church-related mission agencies.

For a number of years she was on the staff of the Archbishops' Council heading up the Selection Unit for trainee clergy. Margaret currently works for Odgers, Ray & Berndtson, an International executive search firm, as a Head of Diversity and Principal consultant in the Not-for-Profit/Public Sector. She brings a breadth of experience from a range of external appointments on various governing boards and councils, and as a trustee of a number of charities.

Her interests are mainly in the areas of health, education and poverty, particularly in the Global South.

An interview in C Magazine with Margaret Sentamu from 2006

At home with Margaret Sentamu

Catching up with Margaret Sentamu was a challenge in itself, after an unexpected car breakdown in soaring temperatures on the A1, I began to wonder if she would still be there when I arrived in York...but a message on my mobile assured me she would and her biggest concern seemed to be that I wasn't to worry! It was refreshing to know that this very busy career woman, also the wife of the Archbishop of York had time to think of how I might be feeling.

Margaret Sentamu exudes a sense of calm purpose, even under the spotlight of the photographer's lens, she was laughing and talking with ease. I caught up with her at home in the rather grand surroundings of Bishopthorpe Palace, the home and office of the Archbishop and many before him.

Brought up in Uganda, Margaret and John Sentamu have spent most of their adult lives in the UK after moving here in the 1970's.

She said: "I married a Barrister, knowing full well that ordination was on the horizon because he was very involved in teaching and preaching all over the country and further afield. Lo and behold, soon after marriage, he gave up the legal profession and accepted a scholarship to read theology at Cambridge. I resigned my job as a secondary school teacher and we both traveled to the UK."

So with their very large families so many miles away, where does she see as home?

"I see home as where my family is," she explains. Family is very important to Margaret, which is why she is a strong supporter of the Mothers' Union. Margaret and John became members while they were in Birmingham. She explained: "What really spurred it for us was when we spent seven days in Malawi ( the link diocese with Birmingham) and we were so impressed with the work of the MU. All the stuff the government provides for us here the MU are doing there..they are the backbone of the country they've started up a feeding progamme and income generation projects. Coming back we felt we really needed to identify ourselves properly with the work of the MU and the family."

Later this month she will be the first speaker at the very first annual Mary Sumner lecture organized by Southwell Branch of the Mothers' Union. Her talk at Southwell Minster on Saturday, 16^th September is entitled: 'The call to all God's People.'

What have been the hardest pressures for you in your family life?

It's to do with time, making space to spend time with the children. As a clergy spouse I was quite concerned that John was busy in ministry in the parish. We decided I would take time out to be with the children and to raise the family. I felt my ministry was to look after the children and one of us had to go out to work.

It was a sacrifice we made and the clergy stipend isn't a great deal. Those first 12 years were special. He ( John) didn't spend as much time with us all together, but we did during holidays..I think it is quite a pressure for any professional family and more so for clergy. We're meant to be modeling family life and being an example..it's a juggling act.

The short space we have with our children when they are young is very short. I feel for mothers who have to go out to work now. The juggling act is even greater and being women it very easy to feel guilty.

Margaret spent time looking after other children whose parents were working, when she was staying at home with hers.

What makes it hard for families today?

It is time I think. They are trying to balance the need to go out to work and provide for the family and the need to be available with the family. I'm not against women going out to work, because I've done that. We should do that which god has called us to do and be comfortable with it and not live up to other people's expectations.

Why is the family important?

To me it is a foundation to life. It's very much to do with who we are, our identity is always in relationship to someone. We're never alone. Someone said, 'I am because I belong.' That is true in Africa and India more so , but also in the western world where family life has become very fragmented.

Family members are no longer near by to give children that sense of identity and belonging...that is what is it to be human.

The root of problems people have in life mostly go back to their family and how they were shaped. It gives us a sense of identity and a sense of belonging and shapes the person we are today.

The church then becomes a family because our society is so fragmented that is value of the family called the church. We need to be taking responsibility to be the surrogate parents for people that need support, like single parents. We need don't need to be bereft because there is a church to be family for us. That is why it is so good to have the church. I've seen it work in practice for my own family and really come to value it. My larger family are a long way away in Uganda and people in the church befriended us and became family for us. The people who we stick in touch with are people who we met very early years when the children were young.

Hasn't the MU passed its sell-by date?

The name hasn't helped and the membership is more senior but if you get to know MU they are doing really sterling work – you only need to look on their website. They are doing so much that is cutting edge, with women going out to work more the meeting happen in the day and that makes it difficult to attract younger members. If you get to know what they are doing on the ground you would be very impressed.

Do you see yourself as called in your current job?

I would say I'm called by God to fulfill my potential. Calling has to be interpreted and has to be lived out in practice.

If you are called to be ordained as a clergy person you are called to live that out and you may be called to live it out in an urban, rural or sub-urban context.

That is always being re-interpreted and therefore in my case I felt God was calling me to move. I had spent 15 years or so helping to discern vocations of men and women and to find out if god had called them to the ordained ministry. (She also previously worked with CMS – helping people test out their calling to the mission field). Now moving on I'm still discerning and making sure we appoint suitable people into the Not for profit or Charity sector. (Margaret's new role has been described as a charity head hunter). I think the calling is the same and it's where you live it out. I have now made the shift from the 'sacred' to the 'secular'. But I'm uncomfortable with that because it implies god is not in the secular. I think we've got it wrong. We desperately need Christian doctors, lawyers and teachers etc. I dispute the fact that ordination is a higher calling. ..

It is where you believe God is calling you to identify your gifts and talents.

It may well be in the church. A high percentage of our time is spent out there in the world and so we ought to be out there.

We're all called...we are called to be children of God through baptism and we're called to be followers of Christ as his disciples, then we're called to have specific 'ministries', by that I mean God uses the natural gift we have and sharpens those up. Among these callings if the call to ordination. The reason I've not followed a call to ordination is because I've not felt called. ...A lot are called to the 'sacred' lay ministry...giving our lives out at the school gate to be salt and light in those contexts. That is a calling therefore we should not undervalue that call.

I get cross when I hear people say " I don't do a lot" – referring to what they do at church. But they forget that their ministry is also at work, where they may be running a ward in a hospital or working in business. As lay people we run ourselves down if what we do is not church connected. Clergy do not value our calling...

The Church of England is running out of volunteers to do the parish work..what next?

The lay people do not have the time to be doing things, they can give of their money to enable someone else to do the jobs of church administration, pastoral care, youth work and children's work. If we can't give in person we should be able to give in kind to enable that ministry to continue.

We get a team of lay people who would be willing to serve, but who need to be equipped...we need to give generously and sacrificially sometimes.

More young people needed in ordained ministry?

I think 12 per cent who went forward for the ordained ministry last year (2005) were under the age of 30. That needs to change and the Church of England is tackling that...with a new recruitment drive for younger candidates..