Accra Dec 26. GNA— Reverend Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, the Founder of the World Wide Miracle Outreach Church, says he started wearing the clerical collar following the advice and counsel of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday at age 90.
“He was a great source of blessing to me when I was inducted as a canon of the Anglican Church. My prayers are with his family” he said in an eulogy.
He described the South African cleric who was also a Noble Peace Prize laureate, as a role model who “believed in dialogue in boldness” and led with dignity and fortitude in the struggle for people of African descent.
“Africa has lost a great icon and a leader of the black race worldwide” he said.
Rev Dr Tetteh said the ability of the late Archbishop to combine religious leadership with academics inspired him to learn “how the Church can collaborate with the State and political leadership without compromising one’s stand”.
The South African President in a tweet, described Archbishop Tutu as “a patriot without equal; a leader of principal and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without work is dead”.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, a town in Transvaal province of South Africa, to a father who was a teacher and a mother earning a living as a domestic worker.
Young Tutu who suffered tuberculosis had plans of becoming a doctor, but could not pursue his career ambition due to unaffordable fees and, therefore, ended up as a teacher even though he had qualified for medical school.
In the 1950s, Tutu had resigned as a teacher in protest of government restrictions on education for Black children, the Bantu Education Act.
He was ordained in 1960 and spent the ’60s and early ’70s alternating between London and South Africa.
In 1975, he was appointed dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg and immediately used his new position to make political statements and fight apartheid in his country.
Tutu served as a Bishop of Lesotho from 1976-78, Assistant Bishop of Johannesburg and Rector of a parish in Soweto.
In 1984, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent opposition to apartheid.
He became Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985, and was appointed the first black Archbishop of Cape Town, the following year.
He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and in recent years was hospitalised on several occasions to treat cancer related infections.
GNA