Trevor Huddleston

Anglican Portal

Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston KCMG (June 15, 1913 – April 20, 1998), was an Anglican priest, one-time Archbishop of Mauritius and the Indian Ocean, and most famous for his anti-Apartheid activism.

Life

Born in Bedford, England, he was educated at Lancing College, Christ Church, Oxford and at Wells Theological College. He joined the Anglican religious order, the Community of the Resurrection (CR) in 1939, having already served for two years as a curate at St. Mark's, Swindon.

In 1943, he went to the CR mission station at Rosettenville, Sophiatown (Johannesburg, South Africa). He was sent there to build on the work of Raymond Raines CR, whose monumental efforts there had proved to be so demanding that the Community summoned him back to Mirfield in order to recuperate. Raines was deeply concerned about who should be appointed to succeed him. He met Huddleston (at that stage still a novice in the Community) who had been appointed to nurse him while he was in the infirmary. As a result of that meeting, much to Huddleston's surprise, Raines was convinced that he had found his successor.

Over the course of the next 13 years in Sophiatown, Huddleston developed into a much-loved priest and respected anti-Apartheid activist, earning him the nickname Makhalipile ("dauntless one"). He fought tirelessly against the vicious Apartheid laws. In 1955, the ANC gave him the rare honour of bestowing on him the title "Isitwalandwe", at the famous Freedom Congress in Kliptown.

His order asked him to return to England in 1956, where he worked as the Master of Novices at the CR's Mirfield mother house (West Yorkshire) for a few years. He was consecrated Bishop of Masasi (Tanzania) in 1960, where he worked for eight years, before becoming Bishop of Stepney (a Suffragan bishop in the Diocese of London). [LondonGazette|issue=44628|startpage=7491|date=5 July 1968|accessdate=2008-01-16] After ten years in England, he was appointed Bishop of Mauritius (1978), and was then elected Archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean.

ApartheidAfter his retirement from episcopal office in 1983 he started anti-Apartheid work outside of South Africa, having become President of the Anti-Apartheid movement in 1981.

In 1994 received high honours from Tanzania (Torch of Kilimanjaro), and was awarded the Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament, and Development. In the 1998 New Year Honours he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). [LondonGazette|issue=54993|supp=yes|startpage=3|date=30 December 1997|accessdate=2008-01-16]

Death and legacy

Trevor Huddleston died at Mirfield in West Yorkshire, England. A window in memory of him is at the Lancing College chapel and was visited by Desmond Tutu. They became friends after meeting while Trevor was on a mission in South Africa during Apartheid. A noted prayer of his was, "God bless Africa, Guard her people, Guide her leaders, And give her peace." He also authored "Naught for your comfort". [Collins, 1956]

ee also

Graham Charles Chadwick

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/huddlestont1.shtml Audio samples]
* [http://www.mirfield.org.uk/biography/trevor.asp Obituary by Aelred Stubbs]
* [http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/solidarity/huddlebio.html "The Life and Work of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston": links and biography on ANC website]
* [http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/solidarity/huddlepress.html "Items from the Press on the Death of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston": ANC website]
* [http://www.trevorhuddleston.org Trevor Huddleston CR Memorial Centre, Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa]