wfn.org | NEW ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE TOWN ELECTED AS DESMOND TUTU STEPS

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org]

TITLE:NEW ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE TOWN ELECTED
June 26, 1996
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

96-1500
NEW ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE TOWN ELECTED AS DESMOND TUTU STEPS DOWN

BY NOEL BRUYNS
           (ENI)  At an elective assembly held June 4, 1996, Bishop Winston
Njongonkulu Ndungane was chosen to succeed Desmond Tutu
as Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. 
           After the announcement of Ndungane's election, Tutu reminded South
Africans that their country's president Nelson Mandela
was, during the apartheid era, a political prisoner for many years on the
infamous Robben Island. "So was the presiding bishop of the
Methodist Church of South Africa, so was Bishop Njongonkulu--there must be
something about the air on Robben Island," he quipped. 
           He expressed his great pleasure at the election of Ndungane to
succeed him as Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of the
Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA). Although retiring from
office, Tutu will continue as chairman of the government-
appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is unearthing atrocities
perpetrated during the apartheid era. He has postponed plans
to study in the United States and write books on theology.
           Currently bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman in the Northern Cape,
Ndungane, aged 55, will be enthroned in Cape Town on
September 15. In 1960, he was involved in anti-apartheid demonstrations while
a student at the University of Cape Town. In 1963, he began
a three-year sentence on Robben Island as a political prisoner. 
           "We have emerged from a crucible of fire where many people have
been wounded and scarred," Ndungane said in a statement
after the election. "An urgent task for the church is the transformation of
agents of brokenness into angels of healing." 
           He also urged South Africans to address the problem of poverty,
calling it "one of the greatest challenges in our country." As
Christians, he said, "we have to pledge ourselves to work for the elimination
of poverty in our society and to ensure that people have all
that is necessary for a fully human life . . . . We must commit ourselves
consistently to put before people the values of society as ordained
by God."
           Tutu steps down at the end of this month after 10 years as head of
the Anglican Church in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia,
Swaziland, Lesotho and the island of St. Helena. About 7,000 people bade him
farewell at a marathon three-and-a-half-hour church service
in Cape Town in early June. In his final sermon as leader of the CPSA, he made
an impassioned plea for peace, and warned that crime,
corruption and greed could destroy the democracy for which so many people had
fought. "The worst thing we can do for democracy and
freedom is to become docile lapdogs," Tutu warned.
           Diane Porter, senior executive for program, represented the
Episcopal Church at international observances in South Africa in late
June, marking Tutu's retirement. "His laughter ringing out has given courage
and confidence to a down-trodden people," said Archbishop of
Canterbury George Carey at the event.
           During the service, Carey presented to Tutu the inaugural Award for
Outstanding Service to the Anglican Communion. "It has
long been my intention to introduce a special award, which would be made only
very rarely, an award to individuals from around the
Anglican Communion who, through their lifetime, make a quite outstanding
contribution to the life of the communion," Carey said. "There
could be no more suitable person to receive this first award," he told Tutu.

--NOEL BRUYNS IS A CORRESPONDENT FOR ECUMENICAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL. ALSO BASED
ON A REPORT FROM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.