Desmond Tutu's daughter, Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-van Furth has been
forced to give up her duties as a priest in South Africa's Anglican
church after she married a woman, she told AFP today
Mpho can no longer preside at holy communion, weddings, baptisms or
funerals after handing in her licence because the church does not
recognise gay marriage. She said her father, the retired archbishop and
celebrated anti-apartheid campaigner, was "sad but not surprised" at the
news.
"The canon (law) of the South African Church states that marriage is
between one man and one woman," Tutu-van Furth said in an email. "After
my marriage... the Bishop of Saldanha Bay was advised that he must
revoke my licence. I offered to return my licence rather than require
that he take it from me."
Mpho and Marceline Tutu-van Furth have been on honeymoon on the
Indonesian island of Bali after holding a wedding party outside Cape
Town earlier this month.
Desmond Tutu, 84, who has been in frail health, attended the
celebrations with his wife. He has previously spoken out in favour of
gay marriage.
Marceline Tutu-van Furth is an Amsterdam-based professor specialising in
paediatric infections. The couple -- who are both divorced and have
children -- officially tied the knot in the Netherlands in December.
"My wife and I meet across almost every dimension of difference. Some of
our differences are obvious; she is tall and white, I am black and
vertically challenged," Mpho told the South African City Press
newspaper. "Ironically, coming from a past where difference was the
instrument of division, it is our sameness that is now the cause of
distress," she said in a reference to apartheid.
Senior local priest Bruce Jenneker told AFP that the Saldanha diocese had received Mpho's licence with "sadness".
"It was a great pity that it had to happen," he added.
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Hmmmmmm! is this life,what do you think madness or?