A story about Desmond Tutu
I worked for him in South Africa for three years.
Desmond Tutu (placeholder)
Bishop Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal. His father was a teacher, and he himself was educated at Johannesburg Bantu High School. After leaving school he trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and in 1954 he graduated from the University of South Africa. After three years as a high school teacher he began to study theology, being ordained as a priest in 1960. The years 1962-66 were devoted to further theological study in England leading up to a Master of Theology. From 1967 to 1972 he taught theology in South Africa before returning to England for three years as the assistant director of a theological institute in London. In 1975 he was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Tutu is an honorary doctor of a number of leading universities in the USA, Britain and Germany.
Desmond Tutu has formulated his objective as “a democratic and just society without racial divisions”, and has set forward the following points as minimum demands:
1. equal civil rights for all
2. the abolition of South Africa’s passport laws
3. a common system of education
4. the cessation of forced deportation from South Africa to the so-called “homelands”
The South African Council of Churches is a contact organization for the churches of South Africa and functions as a national committee for the World Council of Churches. The Boer churches have disassociated themselves from the organization as a result of the unambiguous stand it has made against apartheid. Around 80 percent of its members are black, and they now dominate the leading positions.
from http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-bio.html
Recent stories by and about Desmond Tutu
A story about Desmond Tutu
I herd this great man amoung many others at the 2006 peacejam at me school. live! with the dalia lama and others it was a inspireing time
Why I want to meet Desmond Tutu
particularly since reading ‘Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa’
A story about Desmond Tutu
met him several times as a grade school kid. his godchild happened to be in my class for 5 years…lucky me! he was such a kind man, and had a great sense of humor with us kids.
A story about Desmond Tutu
I got to see the venerable Bishop Tutu when he came to speak at Harvard, whose policies, at the time were supportive of apartheid. It was an interesting time in that quite a number of students and activists set up shanty shacks on Harvard Yard to protest Harvard’s position.
The school finally divested, largely, I suspect, from the embarrassment caused by the protests, and Bishops Tutu’s impassioned words and deeds.
How I met Desmond Tutu
I met Desmond Tutu when he was visiting the Episcopal Church Center in New York, where I was working at the time. This was in 1988. He was very soft spoken and seemed like a very kind person.
A story about Desmond Tutu
I met Mr. Tutu while I was waiting in the lobby of my hotel in Cape Town. My then 4 year old daughter was singing quietly and playing in the lobby which caught his attention. He smiled brightly and complimented her on her singing and asked her to continue. This caused her to turn very shy, unfortunately.
I had a brief conversation with him while his associates were conducting some business at the front desk. He seemed to be a very kind, intelligent and soft-spoken man.
