Tutu celebrates 50 years of love

2005-07-02 17:53

Soweto - Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, were joined on Saturday by Nelson Mandela, friends and family at a thanksgiving service to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.

The retired Anglican archbishop and his spouse exchanged rings and renewed their vows before their daughter, Reverend Mpho Tutu, in a packed Holy Cross Church in Orlando, Soweto.

The joyful ceremony was punctuated by cheers and laughter and witnessed by the Tutu's children and grandchildren, former freedom fighters, diplomats, members of the government and the legal community.

During the reaffirmation vows, their daughter strayed from protocol briefly saying: "Now Mummy, you take Daddy's right hand."

When Mrs Tutu was asked by her daughter to say after her "to have and to hold you, for better, for worse," she answered: "for better and better" drawing laughter from her husband and the congregation.

Mandela and his wife Graca Machel sat in the front row of the church, smiling as their close friends recommitted themselves to their marriage. They joined in the rest of the invited guests in embracing the couple after the ceremony.

Retired Bishop Michael Nuttall who delivered the sermon, recalled that Mrs Tutu had once described her husband by saying "he's just an ordinary husband who likes gardening, who loves gardening, but who won't do any gardening".

"What a splendid example you have been and still are to us all," Nuttall said.

Tutu, 73, and his wife, 70, stood together during the struggle against apartheid, during which he called for the release from prison of Mandela and rallied the international community to impose economic sanctions against the former white regime. They have three daughters and a son.

"What a fantastic person you have been," Tutu said to his wife in his address to the congregation. "Thank you for being you."

- AP