Sermon for Maundy Thursday 2022

Preached at the Renewal of Vows and Chrism Mass of the Diocese of Cape Town on Maundy Thursday at Mark's Church, Athlone: 

Exodus 12: 1-4, 11-14; Psalm 116: 1-2, 11-18; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-2: John 13: 1-17, 31b-35

In the name of God, Creator, Son, Redeemer and Holy Spirit, Sustainer of life, Amen.

It is so good to see you all again! A warm welcome to those who have joined the Diocese since the last renewal of clergy vows or those who have been elected to new roles within the Diocese or placed in new parishes. Thank you to all the staff, the Diocesan staff at Braehead House and elsewhere, and to the staff at Bishopscourt and the Provincial Office, especially to Canon Charleen and Bishop Joshua for leading and managing Diocesan affairs. 

Address at the opening of "Truth to Power" - Apartheid Museum/Tutu Legacy Foundation exhibition

Remarks made at the opening of the “Truth to Power” exhibition at the Old Granary, Cape Town, on 24th March 2022:

Dear Trevor, Dear Thandi, Mthunzi and Xabiso, Dear Nyaniso, Dear Mr Leonard Shenxane and Ms Lungi Morrison, thank you to all Tutu family members for gracing us with your presence, especially during your time of mourning. Be assured of our love and our prayers for Mama Leah and for each of you as you come to terms with life without your beloved husband, father and grandfather.

Human Rights and the Mining Industry

The keynote address to a Human Rights Dialogue held by the Minerals Council South Africa, with Anglo American and Global Compact Network South Africa, on on 17th March 2022, ahead of South Africa's Human Rights Day: 

Good morning to you all. Thanks for being part of this event. You all have busy lives and work schedules, and your time is appreciated. 

Thank you in particular for joining this workshop on human rights. But you may well ask, what has a religious leader got to say about human rights? Sure you should be hearing from a lawyer or a legal philosopher? My answer is straightforward: respect for human rights is as central to religious faith as it is to any part of life. Our late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu used to put it this way: whether you are a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu, a Jew or a Buddhist, not one of these faiths has a low doctrine of human beings. And if you are a person of no faith, you almost inevitably follow what they called the Golden Rule: that you should treat other people as you wish to be treated.  

A homily for Ash Wednesday 2022

A sermon for Transfiguration Sunday

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

Transfiguration Sunday 

Trinity Wall Street, New York

27 February 2022

Readings: Exodus 34: 29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3: 12-4:2; Luke 9: 28 - 36

May I speak in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of our lives, Amen.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, dear people of God,  it is wonderful to be back with you, and a special honour and privilege to have been asked to share with you the Word of God in this momentous weekend as we celebrate the institution of the Revd Phil Jackson as your Rector. Many thanks to you, Father Phil, to your leadership team and to the whole community for this invitation. Thank you also to those who have worked hard on the preparations for the events of this week. Phil, on behalf of my Diocese of Cape Town and my Province, of Southern Africa where we are experiencing the burning heat of summer right now, I bring you our warmest congratulations. 

Archbishop Thabo calls for prayers for peace, fasting, and indaba over Ukraine crisis

 I am writing to you from New York, where I will attend today the Institution of the Revd Phil Jackson, the new Rector of Trinity Church Wall Street, the original Anglican parish on the island of Manhattan. Tomorrow, on Transfiguration Sunday, I will preach at Trinity before returning home for Ash Wednesday.

Trinity have booked me into a hotel close to the church and overlooking the site of the World Trade Centre, the destruction of which turned parish life upside down on and in the months that followed the attacks of September 11, 2001. 

Looking out of my hotel window, it is misty, cold and rainy. Through the rain I can see the man-made waterfalls which plunge into the twin pools of the 9/11 Memorial, two dark pits left by the destruction of the twin towers and what they represented. As I contemplate the scene, I share a prayer for those who died, those who suffered and those who are still suffering because of those attacks and because of what precipitated them.

Turning to the television, I watch CNN and see the coverage of the devastation in Ukraine as well as the mental and psychological devastation of Russia. I shiver at the prospects of fighting on the site of the Chernobyl former nuclear plant, where already military hardware is reported to be releasing radioactive dust into the air.

As the world watches, we too share in the devastation, ultimately helpless to act in the face of more destruction and more death, able to respond only with rhetoric. I pray for Ukraine and Russia and in particular all their people. Surely we need a high-level peace initiative? A ceasefire? Dialogue? And in the worldwide church we need an indaba theology, an ubuntu ethic, and action based on indaba and ubuntu to inform our interventions to end this sad war and the frightening prospect of nuclear escalation.

I support Pope Francis's call for prayer and fasting on Ash Wednesday, and I call on Anglicans across Southern Africa to pray for Ukraine and Russia, to join others in praying, and to join calls for real indaba for the sake of those who suffer.