A Liverpool artist, Terry Duffy, travelled to Lambeth Palace last Thursday to witness the blessing by the Archbishop of Canterbury of one of his artworks, created for the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, before it goes to South Africa.

Mr Duffy made the cope after meeting Archbishop Tutu in 2014, at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, where his 14-foot-high painting Victim, no Resurrection was the centrepiece of an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid.

A discussion with Archbishop Tutu inspired Mr Duffy to design a Truth and Reconciliation cope; but, although it was made while the Archbishop was alive, the pandemic prevented delivery before his death last December.

After the blessing, the cope’s next stop is the Dean of St George’s Cathedral, the Very Revd Michael Weeder. It will be worn throughout South Africa to commemorate Archbishop Tutu’s life.

Archbishop Welby wrote on Twitter last Thursday: “Deeply honoured to bless and hand over to Dean Michael Weeder the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu ‘Truth and Reconciliation Cope’ — which has been gifted to St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town.” The cope, he said, “holds together light and darkness — the reality of pain and division, but also God’s promise of liberation and reconciliation.”

terryduffy.info

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