Desmond Tutu’s daughter 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 on Tuesday.
Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-van Furth can no longer preside at Holy Communion, weddings, baptisms or funerals after handing in her license because the church does not recognize 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 license. I offered to return my license 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.
Credit: vanguardngr
