The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has called for a renewed effort by the Government to combat child poverty, third world debt and racism.

Speaking at a public lecture at Oxford Brookes University yesterday, as part of the weeklong Oxford University Mission, the Archbishop said third world debt, the "bleak perilous future" for children of the world and racism were the three modern "evils" faced nationally and globally.

"There is a big problem that isn't going to go away, and it's likely to get worse," he warned.

Dr Sentamu went on to warn that international debt ran counter to biblical teaching on God's Creation: "The global problem of international debt and economic injustice must be addressed now because they are both counter-cultural to the Christian understanding of Creation. God has created a world in which we are bound together in a common humanity in which each person has equal dignity and value."

He continued: "Jesus demonstrated the power of the Kingdom of God by casting out demons. In his name we must courageously confront and overcome the evil of world debt indebtedness by the poor two-thirds world to the one-third world rich countries."

Dr Sentamu also called for the Government to re-examine its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals on the issue of children's rights as he warned that,
"Training children to kill has become customary in the world."

He warned that the cancellation of international debt and the removal of an "unjust economic order" were not enough in themselves to remove the scourge of indebtedness in the future so long as "the life-threatening consequences children of the world face as a result of poor education are not removed on a global scale".

Out of 130 million children between six and 11 in the Two-Thirds world who are not at school, 86 million, or two thirds, are girls. This is a statistic that has to change, warns Dr Sentamu.

"There will, in my judgement, be no real advance in the Two-Thirds world until education enables women to be emancipated.

"We have been right to do all we can to cancel the burden of debt in the Two-Thirds world," he said before stressing the urgent need to ensure that debt cancellation is used to pay for health and education.

In addressing racism, Dr Sentamu said there had been 68 racist murders since the murder of Stephen Lawrence on 22 April 1993. Racism has been thrown once again into the media spotlight by the Celebrity Big Brother race row over alleged racial abuse to Bollywood star and winner of the reality TV show Shilpa Shetty.

"We need to develop programmes that value the ethnic diversity of this great nation," said Dr Sentamu.

"Our cultural identity and difference must be balanced with a clear understanding of a shared humanity and membership of one world. We need other human beings to help us be human. We are made for interdependence, for complementarity.

"Our commitment as communities to promote understanding and justice will create harmony longed for by all. Multi-ethnic harmony isn't the absence of conflict between different ethnic groups in the United Kingdom," he said.

"When colour, culture and ethnic origin are truly shared all are enriched," he said.