Anglican Church briefing for Archbishop Tutu’s funeral

Please see the updated list of memorials here

Briefing for news conference at St George’s Cathedral
1030 am Monday December 27, 2021

    • Welcome. Archbishop Desmond valued his relationships with media, particularly because his voice would not have been heard in the early years, were it not for the media.

    • We have a busy week, in which many organisations will no doubt plan many events

    • Here today, we will discuss the funeral, which will take place here, in the Cathedral which became called the “People’s Cathedral” in the struggle years, at 10 am on Saturday, New Year’s Day. It is here where his ashes will also be interred.

    • But expect announcements in the next day or two, from other churches and institutions of State and NGOs, about their events. We know of the following main events:

        ◦ The Diocese of the Highveld will have an Ecumenical Eucharist at 5pm on Wednesday at St Dunstan’s Cathedral in Benoni.
        ◦ The City of Cape Town will host an Interfaith Memorial Service at 6 pm on Wednesday.  They will announce full details themselves.
        ◦ The Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman will be having an Ecumenical Thanksgiving service at St Cyprian’s Cathedral at 10am on Thursday.
        ◦ The Diocese of Pretoria will hold an ecumenical and interfaith service at 11 am on Thursday at St Albans Cathedral. They will announce full details themselves.
        ◦ The Diocese of Johannesburg will also hold a memorial service in St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg at 11 am on Thursday.  They will announce full details themselves.
        ◦  Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation will host an event in Cape Town on Thursday evening.
        ◦ St Mary’s Cathedral in Gqeberha will hold a memorial service at 10 am on Friday.
        ◦ Other Cathedrals in other cities will no doubt announce memorial services in the coming days and weeks

    • Two important points to note: (1) Final details will come from those institutions themselves, and they are subject to change, and (2) this is very important especially for the church community. Please attend services in your local communities and parishes. Our lists of possible attendees at the funeral run to 400 or 500 names, and more than 100 clergy. But Covid regulations restrict attendance at funerals to a maximum of 100. Only a fraction of those who want to be there can be accommodated in the Cathedral. So please don’t get on a bus to Cape Town.

    • Now to the arrangements for St George’s Cathedral this week.

    • Bells will ring at 12 noon each day at the Cathedral and at many cathedrals and churches across the land. In Cape Town, the Angelus prayer will be recited.

    • The Archbishop Emeritus will lie in State on Friday, and the public will be given an opportunity to file past his coffin, which will reflect the simplicity with which he asked to be buried. We will accommodate as many people as we can in the hours available. Outside the Cathedral, the City of Cape Town has laid out condolence books and places to leave flowers.

    • Archbishop Desmond’s remains will then lie overnight, alone, in the Cathedral which he loved.

    • The funeral will take place in the Cathedral at 10 am on Saturday January 1, 2022.

    • The National and Local governments are being extraordinarily helpful with the arrangements, and further details will no doubt be announced in the next day or two. There has not been time to complete our consultations with them on their involvement.  

    • But these are the details the church is responsible for:
        ◦ The service will be an Anglican Requiem Mass, as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond wanted;
        ◦ The preacher will be Bishop Michael Nuttall, the retired Bishop of Natal, who was Dean of the Anglican Church in Archbishop Desmond’s Tutu time. In that position he became known as “Number Two to Tutu”, and they formed an exceptionally close relationship, which in the 1980s modelled how a white leader could work for and closely with a black leader.
        ◦ The choir will be the renowned Johannesburg choir, which he loved, Imilonji ka Ntu, whose contribution may have to be streamed in.