Summary

This book tells a story involving two South African church leaders, Desmond Tutu and Michael Nuttall, during a dramatic and decisive time in the history of their country, the 1980's and 1990's. Tutu was, and is, well known and acclaimed across the world, firstly for his courageous prophetic witness against apartheid and all it stood for, and secondly for his chairing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Nuttall was Bishop of Natal when Tutu was Archbishop of Cape Town. His election in 1989 to be the bishop next senior to the Archbishop meant that he was drawn into a remarkable partnership. This book opens the curtains on some intriguing and transforming situations in which they became involved. It shows how the church, through its leaders as well as in other ways, played an important part in South Africa's journey from being a racist tyranny into acquiring a new democratic dispensation. It also shows how the church attended to its own internal needs and challenges at the same time.