Mpho Tutu van Furth, an ordained priest in the Anglican church, has been invited to preside at the funeral of Martin Kenyon, who died last week aged 92. The C of E said its actions were “in line with the House of Bishops’ current guidelines on same-sex marriage”. Tutu van Furth’s wife Marceline, a Dutch academic, accused the C of E of homophobia. He said the couple had visited Kenyon in April and asked Mpho to preside over his funeral. “That she can’t do something out of love for her godfather and for the family just because of same-sex marriage … that’s something that upsets me,” she said, according to a Voice of America report. Kenyon’s family were forced to move Thursday’s funeral from St Michael and All Angels Church, Wentnor, near Bishops Castle, to a marquee in the grounds of the former vicarage next door, to allow Tutu van Furth to preside in an unofficial capacity. capacity. “The family is devastated by the church’s decision,” said a family friend. “Even in a conservative rural hinterland like Shropshire, people are horrified at what has happened. It is anti-Christian and unjust.” In a statement, the Diocese of Hereford said: “We recognize that this is a difficult situation.” C of E allows clergy to have same-sex relationships while celibate. The church does not perform or bless same-sex marriages. The issue has been the cause of deep divisions within the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican church for decades. Kenyon, a former Welsh Fusilier and Old Etonian, had a brief moment of fame after complaining he “couldn’t find anywhere to park my car” when he was one of the first people to receive a Covid vaccine in December 2020. The next day on live TV, he asked Piers Morgan, then host of ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Who are you?” Kenyon was friends with Desmond Tutu for decades. Both men were godfathers to each other’s daughters. Tutu, the former archbishop of Cape Town who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, died last December. He gave his “father’s blessing” to his daughter’s same-sex wedding, but was banned by the South African church from officiating. Tutu has championed LGBTQ+ rights, saying in 2013: “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven… I wouldn’t worship a God who is homophobic and that’s how deeply I feel about it.” He added: “I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid.” Tutu van Furth was forced to stop working as a priest in South Africa in 2016 because the Anglican church there does not allow its clergy to perform same-sex weddings, although they have been legal in the country since 2006.
