Because she is married to a woman, the Church of England has forbidden the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu from officiating at her godfather’s burial.
Martin Kenyon, who passed away earlier this month at 92, gave clear instructions for his goddaughter, Anglican priest Reverend Mpho Tutu van Furth, to officiate at his burial.
The Diocese of Hereford, however, refused his family’s request to perform the wedding at his local church in Shropshire, England, because the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s daughter is already married to someone of the same gender.
Tutu van Furth said Kenyon’s daughters intended to hold the burial in St. Michael and All Angels church in the town of Wentnor, where he resided.
She described her godfather as living next door to her in Shropshire for 30 years and being a parishioner there.
In England and Wales, same-sex marriages became legal in 2014. However, the Church of England has an official position against it, and its ministers cannot perform or bless such ceremonies.
The church’s home diocese, the Diocese of Hereford, announced: “We acknowledge this is a difficult situation. Advice was given in line with the House of Bishops current guidance on same-sex marriage.”
Tutu van Furth received his ordination in the US Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2004. The Episcopal Church, which belongs to the Anglican Communion and the Church of England, permits same-sex unions among its clergy.
According to Tutu van Furth, the Church of England should adapt to the changes, but she added: “The church moves at the rate the church moves. I’m not sure when there are enough grieving individuals left to themselves or when there are enough people who have endured enough suffering for the church to transform. But that moment will come.
Kenyon’s family decided to have the funeral ceremony in a marquee in the lawn of the vicarage next door rather than trusting it to someone else.
“The children felt that it was more important to honor their father’s wish about his funeral and so we had a beautiful funeral liturgy in a marquee in the garden,” Tutu van Furth said.
Kenyon was a close friend of Tutu van Furth’s late father and was interviewed in December 2020 when he became one of the first persons in the world to receive the Covid-19 immunization.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Archbishop Tutu, was consecrated in the Anglican church in 1960, alternating between his home South Africa and London. At that time, he first got to know Kenyon.
According to Tutu van Furth, his parents arrived in London in 1962. My father and Martin became friends after my father arrived before my mother. My parents wanted Martin to be my godfather when I was born in 1963 since he had met my mother when she arrived by boat from South Africa.
“My mother said it was Martin who was the most responsible for my parents ever getting to feel at home in the UK. He claimed that he fed me my first meal – a teaspoon of champagne!”
The couple resides in the Netherlands, and Marceline Tutu van Furth, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases, has called the decision to forbid Tutu van Furth from having the wedding at the church “homophobic.”
She referred to herself as an agnostic who had been given a “really warm welcome into this Christian family” in an open letter to God that was posted on LinkedIn.
“My request to you is: please help the people of the Church of England who are homophobic to clear their minds and allow any clergy person to marry any person they respect and love.”