Video

Procession

Sermon: Part 1

Sermon: Part 2

President Jared L. Cohon

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg

Reverend Harold T. Lewis

Adopted Child

Pitt, Carnegie Mellon Confer
Honorary Degree on Archbishop Tutu

In a packed sanctuary in Calvary Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh on Oct. 25, the Most Rev. Desmond Tutu—Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and former Primate of the Anglican Church in the Province of Southern Africa—called on listeners to create a world in which wealth is shared “and there are no outsiders.”

Echoing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Tutu said, “I too have a dream, that one day my children are going to know that they are all sisters and brothers, are all family.”

Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his crusade against South Africa’s apartheid system of racial segregation and oppression, delivered the sermon during what was billed as an “interfaith service for justice and peace.” Representatives of Pittsburgh’s Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities participated.

The two-hour service, attended by more than 1,100 people, included modern and traditional spiritual music from Pitt's Kuntu Repertory Theater, Calvary's choir and organists, and the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts Choral Ensemble.

Following his sermon, Tutu received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. It was the first time the two universities jointly conferred an honorary degree.

Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg praised Tutu for his leadership in ending apartheid and for continuing to engage “the most pressing global issues of our time,” including terrorism, HIV/AIDS, the death penalty, gay and women’s rights, and corruption.