Mpho with her father, Desmond Tutu. Photo Credit Getty Images
The daughter of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mpho, said a part of her was “stripped away” when she had to relinquish the Anglican priesthood over her same-sex marriage, she disclosed this during an interview with the BBC.
Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth had followed her father’s footsteps into a life in the Anglican church, but when she decided to go into a marriage relationship with another woman, she had to leave.
Mpho Tutu married her long-term Dutch girlfriend, Marceline van Furth, in a small private ceremony in the Netherlands at the end of last year, but they went public last month when they had a wedding celebration in Cape Town.
“My marriage sounds like a coming out party,” explains Ms Tutu van Furth. Falling in love with Marceline was as much as a surprise to me as to everyone else,” Said Mpho Tutu.
Her partner, Marceline van Furth is a specialist in paediatric infectious disease and is based in Holland. She is also an atheist.
Ms Tutu van Furth never disclosed her sexuality to public, prior to the announcement of their marriage, and she had previously been in married relationship with man with whom she had two children.
While same-sex marriage was legalised in South Africa in 2006, South African Anglican law on marriage states: “Holy matrimony is the lifelong and exclusive union between one man and one woman.”
Same-sex marriages are not recognised and when it comes to gay clerics, the church is very clear – they must remain celibate.
