News Tutu forced to quit over gay marriage 
 
 Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-Van Furth has revealed that her licence to preach is being revoked because she married a woman – so, she’s decided to quit instead. 
 
 Newlyweds Mpho and Marceline Tutu-Van Furth are on honeymoon on the Indian Ocean island of Bali after their wedding at a Franschhoek wine estate attended by Mpho’s parents, Leah and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. 
 
 “Bali is quite magical,” said Mpho in an email to City Press, adding that she had decided to “give up” her ministerial duties – her authority to preside at Holy Communion, and to officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals in South Africa. 
 
 “Because the South African Anglican Church does not recognise our marriage, I can no longer exercise my priestly ministry in South Africa,” she said. “The bishop of the Diocese of Saldanha Bay [Bishop Raphael Hess] was instructed to revoke my licence. 
 
 “I decided that I would give it to him rather than have him take it, a slightly more dignified option with the same effect.” 
 
 While same-sex marriage was legalised in South Africa in 2006, the South African Anglican law on marriage states: “Holy matrimony is the lifelong and exclusive union between one man and one woman.” 
 
 Debate over same-sex marriage is dividing the Anglican Church around the world and, in South Africa, Mpho and Marceline’s high-profile union has brought the issue to a head. The couple legally tied the knot in Marceline’s home country, the Netherlands, in December. Soon after, Cape Town’s Archbishop Thabo Makgoba indicated that pastoral guidelines for same-sex marriage would be reconsidered in September. 
 
 Makgoba could not be reached for comment this week. His office manager, Wendy Kelderman, said he was away on a retreat. 
 
 Desmond Tutu said this week that Makgoba allowed him to give his daughter and her bride a “father’s blessing”. 
 
 “Archbishop Thabo permitted me to give the couple a father’s blessing, which we hoped would not be misconstrued as pre-empting decisions of the Provincial Synod, the church’s highest legislative structure,” he said. 
 
 Mpho pointed out that despite their obvious differences, ironically, it now is her and Marceline’s sameness that was causing distress. 
 
 “My wife and I meet across almost every dimension of difference. Some of our differences are obvious; she is tall and white, I am black and vertically challenged. Some of our differences are not apparent at a glance; she is Dutch and an atheist, I am South African and a priest in the Episcopal/Anglican Church. 
 
 “Ironically, coming from a past where difference was the instrument of division, it is our sameness that is now the cause of distress. My wife and I are both women,” she said. 
 
 Mpho said she and Marceline had been confronted with gender stereotypes, and the one that irked her most was the “who’s the man in the relationship?” question. She also criticised skewed power relationships in households and abusive men in South Africa. 
 
 “In the South African context, one could also ask: ‘Who gets to have multiple sexual partners (in or out of wedlock), and who gets to be drunk and violently abusive to his partner with little fear of religious sanction and no cultural consequence?’ 
 
 “We have decided that we will both be the woman in the relationship. We meet as mutually respectful equals who enjoy working together. 
 
 “Neither of us stays home. Both of us enjoy cooking. We share responsibility for cleaning and employ domestic workers. Parenting our four children on two continents is a joy and a challenge. Our marriage is for our mutual joy and support. We have decided to forgo the violence and infidelity.” 
 
 She added that she was still a priest in good standing in the Episcopal Church in the US, where same-sex marriage is recognised. Marceline is a professor of paediatric infectious diseases at the Vrije Universiteit medical centre in Amsterdam, while Mpho has been reinstated as executive director of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town. 
 
 They have described their relationship as a “laptop love affair”, saying the distance had done nothing to quell their passion. 
 
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 What do you think of the Anglican Church’s decision to revoke Tutu’s licence? 
 
 SMS us on 35697 using the keyword TUTU and tell us what you think. Please include your name and province. SMSes cost R1.50 ||||| A photo of Mpho Tutu and her father, Desmond, sits on the bookshelf in her office in Alexandria, Va. (Carol Guzy for The Washington Post) 
 
 In a country still deeply riven by division over differences — in race, class, political affiliation and more — it is Mpho Tutu's "sameness" to her new wife that has created a stir. 
 
 Tutu (now Tutu-Van Furth) is the daughter of South Africa's first black archbishop and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and is really only the "same" as her wife in one way — they are both women. But in almost every other imaginable way, they are different. Tutu is black, South African, a devout priest and, as she puts it, "vertically challenged." Marceline Tutu-Van Furth is lanky, Dutch, atheist and a professor of pediatric diseases in Amsterdam. 
 
 South Africa's Anglican church, where Tutu-Van Furth until recently practiced as a priest, isn't ready to accept those with alternative sexualities as members of its clergy. Tutu-Van Furth was ordained at the Historic Christ Church in Alexandria, Va., and since the Episcopal Church, the U.S.-based branch of the Anglican Communion, accepts priests who have entered into same-sex marriages, she can still practice in the United States. 
 
 [Anglican Communion suspends the Episcopal Church after years of gay rights debates] 
 
 “Because the South African Anglican church does not recognize our marriage, I can no longer exercise my priestly ministry in South Africa,” Tutu-van Furth told local media. “The bishop [of Cape Town] was instructed to revoke my license. I decided that I would give it to him rather than have him take it, a slightly more dignified option with the same effect.” 
 
 The Tutu-Van Furths were married on Dec. 30, 2015, but Mpho Tutu-Van Furth didn't reveal that she was being forced out of the South African clergy until recently. 
 
 The South African Anglican church will decide in the coming year whether to change its stance. South Africa legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, making it the first country to do so in Africa. Thabo Makgoba, the current archbishop of Cape Town — the role which Tutu-Van Furth's father held — has spoken about his church's refusal to accept priests from the LGBT community as a problem of discrimination to overcome, similar to anointing blacks or women in the past. 
 
 Desmond Tutu, renowned for his vocal opposition to apartheid, has also championed the cause of LGBT equality. 
 
 “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place,” he said in 2013. “I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this. I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level.” 
 
 His newlywed daughter and her wife are currently honeymooning in Bali. 
 
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 Zimbabwe is planning to print its own ‘U.S. dollars’ ||||| Preparations for Nelson Mandela's funeral have been marred by a public spat between the South African government and retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the most prominent survivors in the long anti-apartheid struggle. 
 
 In this Oct. 29, 1998 photo Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu dance after Tutu handed over the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Pretoria. Tutu was the chairman of the commission... (Associated Press) 
 
 Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks at the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in Soweto near Johannesburg, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt... (Associated Press) 
 
 Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, right, arrives with Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2013 photo, Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu waits to speak during the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in Soweto near... (Associated Press) 
 
 Tutu, a Nobel laureate who has strongly criticized the current government, said in a statement Saturday that he will not be attending Mandela's funeral, even though he wishes to pay respects to his longtime friend. 
 
 He says he was not invited _ an apparent snub that the government vehemently denies. 
 
 "Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata (Mandela) to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral," Tutu said in the statement. "Had I or my office been informed that I would be welcome there is no way on earth that I would have missed it." 
 
 Tutu, 82, said he had cancelled his plans to fly to the Eastern Cape to attend the Sunday funeral after receiving no indication that his name was on the guest list or accreditation list. 
 
 However, Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for the South African presidency, said Tutu is on the guest list and that he hopes a solution will be found that allows Tutu to attend. 
 
 "Certainly he is invited," Maharaj said. "He's an important person." 
 
 He said he did not know whether Tutu had been invited to eulogize Mandela but was certain an invitation to attend had been issued. Tutu has preached at the funerals of most major anti-apartheid figures, including Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Walter Sisulu and others. 
 
 Tutu's daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu, said in a statement earlier Saturday that her father had not been accredited as a clergyman at Mandela's funeral, to be held in Mandela's home village of Qunu. 
 
 Maharaj said no credentials were needed. 
 
 The issue highlights occasional frictions between Tutu and the current government of President Jacob Zuma. Two years ago, Tutu, an anti-apartheid hero often described as South Africa's conscience, slammed the ANC-led government as "disgraceful" for not issuing a visa to the Dalai Lama. He said it was worse than the country's former oppressive white regime. 
 
 At that time, South African foreign ministry officials denied they stalled on the visa because of pressure from China, a major trading partner. Tutu, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent campaign against white racist rule, had invited the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel laureate, to South Africa to celebrate Tutu's 80th birthday. The Dalai Lama's office said he was calling off the visit because he didn't expect to get a visa. 
 
 Tutu accused the South African government of failing to side with "Tibetans who are being oppressed viciously by the Chinese." He also charged Zuma with ignoring the contribution religious leaders made to toppling the white Nationalist Party. 
 
 Before April 2009 elections propelled Zuma to the presidency, Tutu had said he was so skeptical of the ANC leader he was considering not casting a ballot. Tutu cited a rape trial in which Zuma was acquitted and corruption charges that were dropped just before the vote. 
 
 Tutu worked closely with Mandela and served as one of the anti-apartheid struggle's most visible public figures during the 27 years when Mandela was imprisoned. Tutu was the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission created by Mandela's government which investigated apartheid atrocities and he delivered the final report to Mandela in October 1998.
– The daughter of Africa's most famous archbishop is leaving the priesthood over her marriage to a woman. The Washington Post reports Reverend Mpho Tutu-Van Furth, daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Desmond Tutu, married Marceline Furth in December. Same-sex marriage was legalized in South Africa in 2006, but the South African Anglican Church still defines marriage as between a man and a woman, according to the Independent. Tutu-Van Furth tells City Press that the church was going to take away her license to preach, so she decided to quit instead. She calls it "a slightly more dignified option with the same effect.” As the daughter of one of the leading voices against apartheid, Tutu-Van Furth finds her situation ironic. "Coming from a past where difference was the instrument of division, it is our sameness that is now the cause of distress," she tells City Press. "My wife and I are both women." The South African Anglican Church plans to debate changing its position on same-sex marriage within the next year. In the meantime, Tutu-Van Furth maintains her priesthood in the American Episcopal Church. Her father has called homophobia "the same level" of problem as apartheid. “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven," the Post quotes Desmond Tutu as saying. "No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."