Since becoming Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu has become famous for his firsts.
The first black man to hold the office, the first archbishop to play bongo drums at his own inauguration, and now the first to make his recording debut by lending his distinctive vocals to a jazz record. Nice.
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu can be heard on track 12 of Rhythms of Fire, the new CD from the global Christian drumming collective Psalm Drummers, reciting a passage from Ephesians 3: 14-19. One church official has described the track as "smoother than a baby's bottom".
You can listen to a 45-second clip of the track here
Terl Bryant, the founder and director of Psalm Drummers, says: "We worked with Dr Sentamu at his inauguration, which was very exciting. I knew him when he was Bishop of Stepney. It was a lot easier to get hold of him then - a black bishop in east London wasn't turning heads as he is now. This time I had to go through various secretaries."
The recording was done in one take. "I had a rough of the backing track so he was able to feel it. It's like a lullaby, it's about being completely chilled out," says Bryant.
Dr Sentamu's love of music is well documented. While he was Bishop of Birmingham, he appeared as a castaway on Desert Island Discs. His selections included Dame Shirley Bassey, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Louis Armstrong.
The archbishop was most recently in the headlines for musical reasons in July when he drummed at Bishopthorpe Palace to celebrate the release of the kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston.
