TUTU INSTALLED AS JOHANNESBURG BISHOP
Author: Associated Press
Date: Monday, February 4, 1985
Page: 3
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, was enthroned yesterday as
the first black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg after getting special
permission to enter the white neighborhood where the ceremony took place.
During the ceremony, Bishop Tutu gave the white-minority government a
deadline of two years to dismantle apartheid. After that, he said, he will
call for "punitive economic sanctions" against South Africa.
Urging such action is a crime in this country.
In a service of staid Reformation rites and joyous African hymns at the
candle-lit Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin, Bishop Tutu attacked South
Africa's racial segregation as "evil and un-Christian."
"Who in South Africa (who is) not black would be willing to exchange
places with blacks even for a day?" the clergyman, 53, asked from the pulpit.
"I am committed to peaceful change," he said, renewing his offer to
serve as a go-between with the outlawed African National Congress, the main
guerrilla organization trying to overthrow the government.
A ripple of applause, uncharacteristic of Anglican services, spread
through the 2000 white and black parishoners at the end of the sermon.
Foreign diplomats joined church representatives from Europe and the United
States, as well as impoverished blacks from villages and segregated townships,
in the prayers and singing. The South African government sent no
representative.
Strict security measures were imposed at the ceremony after death threats
were reported.
Policemen gathered in groups around the cathedral, and four police riot
vehicles were parked on streets crowded with worshipers who could not squeeze
into the church. There were no incidents.
Right Rev. Merwyn Castle, dean of St. Mary's, said the church had received
''about four" telephone threats against Bishop Tutu's life in the past few
weeks, and that "the person who took some of the calls said he (the caller)
spoke with an Afrikaans accent."
Afrikaans is the Dutch-derived language of the ancestors of white settlers
who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.
Government television and some pro-government news media have criticized
Bishop Tutu's selection for the Nobel prize, saying he is a radical using his
position as a cleric to hide his intentions of encouraging violence against
whites.
"I sympathize in a real sense with those who may feel that I have been
foisted on an unwilling diocese," Bishop Tutu said. But he promised to turn
down a mountain of invitations for overseas appearances and to "give you, my
flock, the chance to get to know me."
There are 1.6 million Anglicans among South Africa's more than 30 million
people. Anglicans account for 10.1 percent of the white population, 13.5
percent of the people of mixed race, 4.8 percent of blacks and 1.1 percent of
Asians.
AA0440;02/03,14:23 LDRISC;02/05,17:51 TUTU04
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