MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A local retired Anglican priest reminisced about working with Archbishop Desmond Tutu during an interview with Mossel Bay Advertiser this week.
“Desmond and I got on like a house on fire,” Reverend Winston Dickerson of Fraaiuitsig, near Mossel Bay, said. “He and [his wife] Leah were two of the warmest people I have ever met.”
Winston said: “I was a capitalist and Desmond was a socialist and we agreed to differ on things. But that did not stop us from loving each other. We had such a warm working relationship.
“Desmond consulted me about building plans and alterations. My father and I had built houses in East London at weekends before I went into the ministry.”
Truly remarkable
Winston’s first face-to-face meeting with Tutu was truly remarkable. They met each other on the tarmac of an airport and Tutu said: “I know you. Wait, don’t tell me your name. I’ll remember. You’re Winston Dickerson and your wife is Lorna and you have two children, Brendan and Carmel.”
This was amazing because Tutu had 200 priests working for him and he remembered Winston’s face only from photographs he had of the clergymen and their families and his list of names.
Winston said: “Desmond sent handwritten letters to people.”
Bouquet
When Winston started a job as a rector of a church in Edgemead, Cape Town, a huge bouquet arrived at his door. He said: “Are these for Lorna (his wife)?” The reply was: “No, they’re for you.”
Winston told the Advertiser: “I’d never received a bouquet of flowers in my life and this was the biggest bouquet I’d ever seen. It was bigger than me.”
The handwritten note from Tutu which came with the flowers, was to wish Winston the very best with his ministry at the parish of St Michael and All Angels in Edgemead and started with the words: “To my dear Winston, may your ministry....”
Decisions
Winston said he appreciated Tutu because he could make decisions quickly. He sent a photograph of him and Tutu to the Advertiser, saying: “This is the only picture I have of Desmond, taken when he visited our Edgemead parish in 1987.
“Desmond did not like my brown shirt. He said I could have a yellow shirt or a black shirt or a white shirt or a green shirt but he did not like my brown shirt.”
The photograph was taken at the moment Tutu said this to Winston, his eyes focused on the shirt, and shows Winston laughing, with his hand in front of his mouth.
‘Gently’
Tutu made this remark “forcefully, but gently”, Winston recalls. “I still wear brown today,” he exclaims.
“The ministers of Edgemead and Milnerton met once a month. I asked them if they wished to meet Desmond, as they were moaning about him. They said ‘yes’.
“I arranged the meeting one morning at Bishopscourt, Desmond’s home. Twenty ministers from different denominations met in Desmond’s lounge. I introduced each person and their denomination. Then I asked each minister to give his complaint about Desmond’s policies and beliefs.
Complaint
“When we got to Desmond, he said: ‘Winston, I have a complaint. I am the only person in this room who cannot vote [in an election]!’
“He had graciously answered their questions. There was complete silence in the room. No one complained about Desmond again.”
This meeting took place in 1978 or 1979, Winston says. “It was a telling moment in our history in the church in Cape Town,” he concludes.
South Africa’s first free, democratic elections, in which citizens of all races could vote, were held in 1994.
Winston is not a name dropper, nor one who would befriend famous people to his advantage.
Book
He contacted the Advertiser because he had written a book, not because he wished to speak about Tutu. The Advertiser asked him about Tutu. Read about Winston’s special book in the next edition of the Advertiser.
Reverend Winston Dickerson and his wife, Lorna. Photo: Linda Sparg
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