The Arch Is Dead, Long Live The Arch!
By Stewart Ting Chong, Canton, MA, USA
12/31/2021
I write this after having returned from St John’s Episcopal
Church in Hingham, Massachusetts, where the church bell tolled at noon, as it
did at other Episcopal Churches across the State. The mournful single note of
the bell, rung in short intervals, heralded the reminder that Archbishop
Desmond Tutu had died on the 26th December 2021 and that his funeral was to be
conducted at 10am in South Africa the following day.
I sat alone quietly weeping in the church where I was
married by Desmond Tutu, the priest who became a bishop, a Nobel Peace Laureate
and then Archbishop of Southern Africa. The awards and accolades bestowed on
him meant little to me for he was just “The Arch”, someone who I had known for
34 years as a mentor, friend, confidant and boss, having worked on his staff
for seven years during the era of apartheid in South Africa.
While the media is filled with tributes honoring a great
peace maker, and rightly so, my own thoughts have been focused on how my life
had changed as a result of his influence. There was, for me, no one braver,
more outspoken in the defense of the oppressed, the persecuted and the
discriminated and no one more prayerfully contemplative than the Arch. It is in
this light that I pen my own thoughts in my personal tribute to honor
him.
I could so easily repeat words already spoken more
eloquently by others, but what I know of him is that words were meaningless
unless there was an action that supported their intent.
“I’m not a holy person and have no skills to offer”, you
might say. And I can hear the Arch’s response: “Do your little bit of good
where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the
world”. We can absolutely do good in the world but why not start in your own
part of the world first? Pick up that piece of trash that someone else has
tossed aside and do good by saving the environment and the conservation of
wildlife. Reach out to someone in need for “We are each made for goodness, love
and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live
with these truths.” Get involved in your communities and correct the injustices
that you’ve ignored by thinking, “someone else is better equipped than I am to
deal with that.” Volunteer your time to help organizations in
their mission and become the person that we know we want to be.
The greatest challenge for me, as it may be for you, is to
see the goodness in others with whom we disagree.
The Arch emphatically believed that we are all children of
God, that goodness is in everyone even though that goodness might be hidden by
“evil”. His challenge to us is to try to see beyond that and to acknowledge the
intrinsic value and goodness in everyone.
So, I write this more as my own pledge, to read and be
reminded daily, that if the Arch meant so much to me, then I should honor him
through my interactions with others, as hard as that might be.
“Goodness is stronger than evil.
Love is stronger than hate.
Light is stronger than darkness.
Life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours through Him who loved us.”
The Archbishop’s death is not the end of the battle he waged
for goodness. It is the beginning for each one of us who holds his name in high
esteem. Discrimination, injustice, persecution and oppression will not end
unless we pick up his mantle of righteousness and call to account those who
continue to tarnish the ideals that he had so faithfully strived to achieve. Let us find our
voice and speak out against oppression. Let us speak out against the injustices
inflicted on communities around the world. Let us hold accountable those who
plunder the coffers intended to help the weak, hungry and destitute. And let us
put the words we speak into action with righteous indignation and leave this world a better and
kinder place for the generations that follow. Let us pledge to continue his work.
The Arch is Dead, Long Live the Arch.
