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Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. I'm Damien Thompson.

The Church of England has a new Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell. He was enthroned

only last week, but already he's made quite an impression,

though I'm sorry to say not a good impression. Even before he took office, Archbishop

Cottrell was in the headlines for revealing that Jesus was black, a piece of alternative

history that dismayed those reactionaries who still argue that Jesus was Jewish, a piece of alternative history that dismayed those reactionaries who still

argued that Jesus was Jewish, but must have delighted black lives matter, of which

Cottrell, who is previously Bishop of Charlestford, is a huge admirer. As a former Anglo-Catholic,

he knows how to genreflect, and he duuly bobs away every time he hears the name of

this creepy and explicitly non-Christian group of Marxist racebaters. Cotrell is the 98th Archbishop

of York. That's according to Anglican calculations anyway. And like most of those, he began the ceremony of his installation

by knocking three times on the door of York Minster with his Crozier.

Only this time there was a difference.

He chose to knock on the inside of the Minster door, rather than the outside,

explaining that it felt like the right thing to do in the circumstances.

We wanted to show that the churches open to everyone,

and that we are here to support and help in these unprecedented times.

He obviously thought it was a very touching, symbolic gesture.

I'm afraid in my cynical way, I thought it was more like something out of Monty Python.

...