Mpho Tutu van Furth to speak at De Nieuwe Kerk’s Pride Talk 2024
18 July in De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam
On Thursday, July 18, on the eve of Queer & Pride Amsterdam 2024, De Nieuwe Kerk will give the stage to Mpho Tutu van Furth. The Pride Talk is the moment to have an international renowned activist critically look at the queer community in our country and Amsterdam. This year, the second edition of the annual Pride Talk, will be hosted by South African human rights activist and priest Mpho Tutu van Furth. Marie Ricardo, strategic director of COC Netherlands, and Rabin S. Baldewsingh, the National Coordinator against Discrimination and Racism will introduce her.
Religiosity, spirituality and sexuality
Religiosity, spirituality and sexuality relate extremely difficult today. The subject is polarizing. Often it is taboo to identify as both religious and queer. At one end of the spectrum is corporal punishment for loving. On the other side is being ostracized from a community. Often, young people report to COC Amsterdam who have been kicked out of their homes by their parents after coming out and sometimes end up homeless in major cities. Consider also the highly controversial conversion therapy. The political debate on this is ongoing. The Dutch House of Representatives wants to criminalize conversion therapy, but the Council of State had all sorts of critical comments.
Tutu van Furth will speak about her life, her journey and her spiritual inspiration as a bisexual religious leader. She will address current Christian and religious views of the LGBTQIA+ community. In her talk, she will explore how an infinite God, became a God of limitation. Tutu has often spoken in her speeches about the Rainbow community becoming “spiritually hungry” because God has been taken away from them by force.
About Mpho Tutu van Furth
Mpho Tutu van Furth (in full The Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth, 1963) is a South African Anglican priest, author and human rights activist. She is the daughter of activist Nomalizo Leah Tutu and Archbishop and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu. She wrote two books with her father (The Book of Forgiving and Made for Goodness published by HarperCollins Publishers) and a biography about him (Tutu: The Authorized Portrait published by Macmillan Publishers). She also wrote Forgiveness and Reparation, the Healing Journey, published by Fortress Press. She was ordained in 2003 in the Episcopal Church, but the Church of England, and the Anglican Church of South Africa do not allow her to serve as a priest in the church because she is married to a woman, Marceline van Furth.
Pride Talk Amsterdam in De Nieuwe Kerk
Amsterdam was once allowed to call itself the Gay Capital of the world. Is that a position that still exists? If so, what does it entail? Do we still aspire to this position today? Does it fit the diversity of the multi-coloured LGBTQ+ community? How do foreign countries see our community? And how do we in Amsterdam and the Netherlands relate to the international community and this global struggle of inequality, discrimination and violence? The annual Pride Talk puts this question on the agenda.
The first edition was held in 2023 by legendary American activist David Mixner (1946 – 2024). He was a writer, fundraiser and performer. In the early 1960s, he campaigned for John and Bobby Kennedy and for Martin Luther King. His Pride Talk, titled My concept of sin is not to care, is available online.
The Pride Talk is free to attend and will be conducted in English. De Nieuwe Kerk is collaborating with COC Nederland and COC Amsterdam on the content of this Pride Talk. COC Nederland is the largest advocacy organisation for the LGBTQIA+ community in The Netherlands. COC Amsterdam represents this advocacy in the Dutch capital city. Hospitality partner is Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam.
Pride Talk 2024, Thursday, July 18 at De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam.
Doors open 7:30 pm, talk start 8 pm. Language: English.
Entrance is free, reserve a spot via nieuwekerk.nl.
Note to editors, not for publication
Images are available upon request at pressoffice@nieuwekerk.nl.
Each year De Nieuwe Kerk turns its gaze to a different continent, country and generation for the Pride Talk.
Contact De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam
Press & Marketing Communications Department
Madeline van Vliet, Stella Küçüksen and Fleur Vroegindewey
020 626 81 68 | pressoffice@nieuwekerk.nl
www.nieuwekerk.nl/pers