Mpho Tutu van Furth, who is a practicing Anglican priest in the US, has been called to officiate at the funeral of the late Martin Kenyon on Thursday in Shropshire. In a statement carried by the BBC, the Diocese of Hereford said: “Advice was given in line with the House of Bishops’ current guidance on same-sex marriage.” Ms Tutu van Furth reportedly told the broadcaster that the decision “seemed really harsh and painful” and the diocese described it as “a difficult situation”. The Church of England does not allow same-sex marriage for its clergy, but the Episcopal Church in the USA – of which Ms Tutu van Furth is a part – does. She had her license to minister in South Africa revoked when she came out and married Marceline van Furth, a Dutch academic, in 2015. When the Kenyon family discovered Mrs Tutu van Furth had been disqualified, they moved the service from St Michael and All Angels to Wentnor, just south of Shrewsbury near the England-Wales border. The funeral was moved to a marquee in a neighboring vicarage so that the godmother could officiate. Ms Tutu van Furth told the BBC: “It is incredibly sad. It feels like a bureaucratic response with perhaps a lack of compassion. “It felt really extreme and hurtful. But as sad as it was, there was joy in celebrating a person who could open the door to people who are sometimes shut out.” Desmond Tutu, who died in December 2021, won the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1980s for his work challenging apartheid in South Africa. He also championed gay rights and campaigned for same-sex marriage. In 2013 he said: “I would refuse to go to a homophobic paradise. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would rather go to the other place. “I wouldn’t worship a God who is homophobic and that’s how deeply I feel about it… I’m as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it’s on the same level.”
