At a memorial service for Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City on Feb. 13, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry remembered the former primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa as a relentless optimist who saw the promise of Easter even when it looked like Good Friday.

In addition to a sermon from Curry, the memorial service for Tutu, who died on Dec. 26, 2021, at age 90, featured eulogies from international dignitaries and prayers and hymns in multiple ethnic and religious traditions.

Tutu was remembered for his steadfast commitment to a just, nonviolent end to the apartheid regime in South Africa – an effort that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. The success of that movement culminated in the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela, who named Tutu the chairman of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tutu’s leadership lent credibility to the commission’s work of exposing the atrocities of apartheid and pursuing restorative justice.

Amidst “the darkness of bigotry, the darkness of animosity, the darkness of arrogance, the darkness of injustice, [Tutu’s voice] reminded [us], it is Easter,” Curry said in his sermon. “Goodness is stronger than evil. That voice, sometimes with a smile, [said,] ‘Love is stronger than hate.’

“The voice of that little man. Remember how little he was? Before I met him the first time, back in the ‘80s, I just knew he was as big as LeBron James. And he was bigger than that!”

Read more here. A video of the service is

By Egan Millard