DESMOND TUTU: PROPHET TO POWER, PASTOR TO THE PEOPLE, HEALER OF A NATION

Reverend Professor Peter Storey, former Presiding Bishop, Methodist Church of SA; President, South African Council of Churches; Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Duke University Divinity School, United States of America


Monday 26 January 1.00 pm COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58

Tutu is remembered by most today as the ebullient, smiling Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, but he was so much more: as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches between 1978 and 1985 he mobilised and led its powerful witness against the apartheid regime. At a time when Mandela and others were in prison or exile, Tutu stood in the gap, becoming our most prominent voice in the struggle for liberation. Hated by most whites and revered by most blacks, he was hauled before Botha’s tribunal at home but honoured internationally with a Nobel Peace Prize. In 1989 he led the first of the great marches around the nation, demonstrating that the momentum toward freedom was unstoppable. After liberation in 1994, his compassionate and grace-filled handling of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission revealed to both black and white South Africans his gifts as a healer and unifier. Right until his death, strife-torn nations around the world sought his presence and counsel.

This lecture by a friend and close associate in some of the most turbulent years of struggle will remind us of critical moments in Desmond Tutu’s life and explore the spiritual roots of his courageous witness.

 

Recommended reading

Alan, J. 2006. Rabble-rouser for Peace: The Authorised Biography of Desmond Tutu. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Battle, M. 2021. Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor. Westminster: John Knox Press.

Tutu, D. 1982. The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness: A Collection of his Most Recent Statements in the Struggle For Justice in South Africa. London: Mowbray.

Tutu, D. 1999. No Future Without Forgiveness. New York: Doubleday.

Vaughan, D. 2022. This One Thing: Journeying with Tutu. Stellenbosch: SUNLit.

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575383054