It is perhaps fitting that, in the week that Ascot moved to York, a long awaited episcopal handicap should end with a long-odds outsider coming up on the rails at the last to take the title to general applause.

The appointment of Dr John Sentamu, the current Bishop of Birmingham, as Archbishop of York, surprised many in the church, not least the Archbishop designate himself. The level of surprise in the media was less obviously detectable under the welter of welcomes. Suddenly the talk of other contenders was reduced to a whisper as the media concurred in a loud chorus of approval that the right man had got the job.

As a good news story for the Church of England, the appointment of Dr Sentamu couldn't have been better. In the midst of the ongoing sagas over homosexuality and failing finances, the pages of positive profiles have been a blessed relief. All the more wonder, then, that there have been so many red herrings as to the reasons for the appointment, not least on the issue of race, and missed opportunities to consider the nature of the man himself.

The comment in one national broadsheet which described the appointment as "political correctness gone gloriously sane" gave a neat nod to the fact that dominated the coverage in almost all the print media: for the first time in its history the Church of England will have a non-white Archbishop. The words of Dr Martin Luther King, longing for the day when people would be judged "not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character" rang hollow over the headlines of "first black Archbishop".

This was not a politically correct appointment but rather a substantially inspired one. It takes more than being black to be an Archbishop, just ask those minority ethnic clergy working throughout the Church of England who still endure humiliations based on the colour of their skin. But the temptation for some journalists has been too much, with some portraying the appointment as part of a wider political move by the Church of England to heal wounded relationships.

Indeed, such has been the emphasis on Dr Sentamu's colour that one journalist went so far as to describe him as a "bishop with street cred" who "might not appear to be a natural choice for the cloisters of York Minster but who would appeal to young people and please the millions of Anglicans in Africa". Such comment makes an absurd case for the reasons behind the appointment, appealing to the Da Vinci Code school of conspiracy theory. This kind of lazy comment fails to grasp the primary reason for the appointment of Dr Sentamu: that it is a passion for and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than his colour, that makes this appointment a good thing for the Church of England.

But there will still be those who argue that there is something not quite right in having a Welshman and a Ugandan as the two Archbishops in the Church of England. Quality knows no national boundaries and excellence has no citizenship. It may take a long-odds outsider to kindle a fire under the church, and the nation, to awaken a nascent pride in what we have and who we are. I, for one, won't be betting against his chances.

* Arun Arora is President of Cranmer Hall and the Wesley Study Centre in Durham. He was Bishop's director of communcations for the diocese of Birmingham from 2000-2004.