Desmond Tutu to speak in Seattle

Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and Episcopal archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, will speak next weekend at St. Mark's Cathedral and Seattle University.

Tutu, South Africa's ambassador to the United States, and another South African civil-rights activist, Sheila Sisulu, whose father was imprisoned with Nelson Mandela, are among the notables who are expected to help celebrate when the Rev. Robert Taylor is installed dean of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral next Saturday.

Taylor is a native of South Africa with a long history in the social-justice movement in that country. As a young minister, he says his phone was tapped and movements monitored because he opposed apartheid.

Tutu also is scheduled to receive an honorary degree from Seattle University in an invitation-only ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13, at Connolly Center. At that event, he will speak on "Global Reconciliation in the New Millennium." The ceremony will be broadcast live on cable Channel 27, the University of Washington station.

Taylor's installation ceremony is expected to draw deans of cathedrals throughout the U.S., Europe and Africa as well as leaders from other faiths. The event is by invitation only, but the celebration will continue through regular Sunday services at 8, 9 and 11 a.m. at St. Mark's, 1245 10th Ave. E.

Taylor has been in Seattle since his appointment last November.

"Our new dean was called by the people of St. Mark's because of his powerful national and international vision," said Midge Bowman, the newly elected senior warden of the cathedral. "For centuries, the great cathedrals in the Christian church have been centers for discourse, learning and the arts. This community is poised to take another step towards that universal vision of `cathedral.' "