The second highest ranked Church of England bishop - a man once thrown in a Ugandan jail - laid out his views on the church and poverty this morning.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu, a former Ugandan High Court judge who is second in seniority to the Archbishop of Canterbury, is spending three weeks based in Dunedin.

He told a one-day symposium at the University of Otago the church has an important role in speaking for the vulnerable.