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Archbishop Desmond Tutu Receives First Archbishop of Canterbury Award

Episcopal News Service. July 25, 1996 [96-1533]

(ACNS) Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Southern Africa became the first recipient of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Award for Outstanding Service to the Anglican Communion during an farewell service for him at the end of June.

The award was a specially commissioned silver casket set on the top with malachite and a Canterbury Cross, the center of which is set with a tanzanite stone that is local to South Africa.

In presenting the award, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said, "It has long been my intention to introduce a special award, which would be made only very rarely; an award to individuals from around the Anglican Communion who, through their lifetime, make a quite outstanding contribution to the life of the Communion, and to our own witness in the world."

There could be "no more suitable person to receive this first award," than Tutu, he said, who has "given his life to the people of South Africa, and to preaching the Word of God through his life as well as his words, wherever he has gone in the world."

Tutu also was presented with the Order for Meritorious Service by President Nelson Mandela of South Africa for his outstanding service in the public interest. This presentation represented that the first time that the award, normally given to heads of state, was given to a South African citizen.

While Tutu is retiring as archbishop of Capetown and primate of the Province of Southern Africa, he will continue as chairman of South Africa's official Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is investigating abuses perpetrated in the apartheid era.

[thumbnail: Desmond Tutu First Recipi...]