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The Venerable John Stephens, Archdeacon of Vancouver and Rector of St. Philip, Dunbar with his partner Ruth and children, Sarah and Matthew participated in a very special celebration of Holy Eucharist in August 2010.
John and his family travelled and visited in South Africa for most of the summer of 2010 and it has been a fantastic experience.
Closer to the end than to the beginning of their time in South Africa the Canadian family rose early on a Friday morning to attend the 7:15am service at St. George’s Cathedral, Cape Town. The traffic on the way to the church was extremely busy and upon their arrival for worship a few minutes late they were surprised to find the Cathedral’s side chapel filled to capacity.
But this was not really surprising as the Celebrant was Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, a great human being, a hero, a Saint, an Anglican and World leader and a voice of hope.
People from all over South Africa and around the world were gathered to share the blessed bread and wine and some time with the Archbishop.
Not long after this time of worship, Tutu announced at a press conference that he will be retiring from public life on October 7th, 2010.
Adapted from John Stephens’ article Anglican Icon Retires published in the October, 2010 issue of Topic, the newspaper of the Diocese of New Westminster.