Citing Episcopal Bishop of Maryland Eugene Taylor Sutton’s reconciliation initiative and his own daughter’s spirituality institute as reasons for his visit, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu will speak at Old St. Paul’s Church on Nov. 22.
Archbishop Tutu, who once was Southern Africa’s Anglican primate and chairman of South Africa’s apartheid-ending Truth and Reconciliation Commission, will speak on “Healing and Hope for Our Times,” a theme that likely will echo Sutton’s presentation earlier in the evening. The event is soldout but the post-talk private reception is not, said Episcopal Diocese of Maryland spokesman Jack Pannell.
Episcopalianism is Anglicanism’s name in the United States.
“The diocese is instituting its own truth and reconciliation commission,” Sutton said, “the same process that Archbishop Tutu used to move South Africa beyond apartheid toward a multiracial democracy. It’s going to tell the truth about the [diocese’s] racial past and will tell the truth about what’s happening in the world today.”
“You can’t go immediately to reconciliation unless you allow people to tell the truth of what’s happening,” he said. “This is a good time to be thinking about this, a week after an American election that is a redemptive moment.”
Elected earlier this year as the 14th bishop of Maryland, Sutton said that racial justice was just one element of a reconciliation program for the 117-parish diocese.
The other two components are a church-based education initiative for the inner-city poor and an environmental justice effort.
“We want to explore how to marshal the resources of the diocese to educate poor people,” he said.
Noting that the poor are the “first and the worst” to suffer from environmental degradation, Sutton added, “We are looking at ways to ensure our parishes are following environmentally sound practices. There are reasons why many of our citizens are sick. The causes are environmental.”
Sutton said that splitting the talk’s proceeds with the Alexandria-based Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage that was founded by Tutu’s daughter underscores the fact that reconciliation must first take place with God before it can reconcile neighbors or people with their environment.
Echoing that, Mpho Tuto, who will also speak at the event, said her institute helps “people connect with themselves and with God through times of quiet and reflection.”
For more information:
Old St. Paul’s Church
309 Cathedral St.
Baltimore 21201
410-685-5537; ang-md.org
