On Sunday 10 July Archbishop Emeritus Tutu again found himself the centre of media attraction when VIP’s crowded with Sunday worshippers and proudly Anglican church people to mark what was billed as the “40th Episcopal Thanksgiving Service for the Most Revd. Desmond Mpilo Tutu.”
The Anglican Cathedral of St Mary in downtown Johannesburg played host to the celebration attended by former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlante, Minister Susan Shabangu (representing the Cabinet) and a range of other dignitaries, to give thanks for the outstanding Episcopal ministry of Archbishop Tutu who was ordained Bishop of the Church in the same cathedral forty years ago. His first appointment was as Bishop of the Diocese of Lesotho, but with the outbreak of the Soweto riots in 1976, he found himself increasingly drawn into prophetic mediation which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986; the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987 (awarded by the Catholic Church); the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999; the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.