THE SECOND most senior cleric in the Church of England has spoken of his fears for young people across Cumbria.

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu – who is also Chancellor of the University of Cumbria – expressed concern over the future for school leavers, following changes in funding for higher education.

He said: “The University of Cumbria will need as much support and encouragement as it can get to support poorer students. I hope anyone who wants to go to university isn’t left out on the grounds of income.

“That would be quite wrong.

“If you have offered free education for people aged up to 16 then you are making a bad investment if you end it there.”

Dressed in full-length purple garb, the high-profile religious figure visited St Thomas’s Church, in Kendal, on an official visit to support school leavers working with the diocese.

Archbishop Sentamu has been a controversial figure in the Church, often speaking out on a range of subjects. Born in Uganda, he studied theology at Cambridge in 1974.

He famously turned down the chance to appear in Celebrity Big Brother and in December 2008, the clergyman took a pair of scissors to his clerical collar, saying he would not replace it until Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was out of office.

In a Daily Mail article in February 2009, Sentamu criticised the treatment of British Christians in the workplace in the public sector.

He said “Asking someone to leave their belief in God at the door of their workplace is akin to asking them to remove their skin colour before coming into the office.”

Also in August 2006, he pitched a tent and camped in York Minster for a week, foregoing food in solidarity with those impacted by the Middle East conflict and he skydived to raise money for the Afghanistan Trust.

While in Kendal, the archbishop heard a talk on the Diocesan Youth Congregations and Internshops programmes.

These aim to encourage young people to worship in their own styles and offer students the chance to take part in a year of organised volunteer work.

The 61-year-old archbishop said he felt passionately for young people in today’s education system.

“School education is the greatest deliverer of independence. I hope that our young people won’t grow up in an atmosphere where they think ‘I can’t do it’.”

St Thomas’s vicar Tim Montgomery, the Bishop of Carlisle James Newcome and Kendal mayor John Veevers, also met the archbishop, who joked that the notoriously tall Mr Veevers was ‘making him look vertically challenged’.