Anti Apartheid Movement for Fn O~Th 89 Charlotte Street, London W1 PD 2DQ Tel 01-580 5311 Embargoed Udt1l Midnight Wednes
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Anti - Anti Apartheid Movement forfno~th 89 Charlotte Street, London W1 PD 2DQ Tel 01-580 5311 Embargoed uDt1l midnight Wednesday/Thursday. April 15th/I6thz 1981 TREVOR HUDDLESTO ECTED NEW PRESIDENT OFIPE ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT The Anti-Apkxtheid Movement takes plepsure in anndtitdujng that Arebbishop Trevör Huddieston, D.D., C.Rö, %}as u iimöusly elected as its'new President by th e AAM National Committee, meeting in ,jrdiff this weekend. He suéeeeds Bishop Ambrose Reeves, 'whö died at the age of åI" on December 23rd-.980, after serving as Preöiitý åln 1970. Abdul M t' i, Honorary Secretary of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.and - like Trevor Huddleston - a founder member of the AAM, comments onhis election: " Archbishop Huddleston wlI1 make anÄi-nvaluable contribution to the work of the AntiwAp@rt9M d,, Movement as President.: We are delighted that be has accepted;this redponsibility. The cause of freedonm in Southern Africa is facing a most serious Challenge, Archbishop Huddleston will help greatly -to advance the cause for which the AMM was eståbiished. This is the decisive final stage in theöAfrican liberation struggle and we know that as. theMoveme:nt's President Arebbishop Huddleston will make a ftfaj r.,eontribution". 'A biograpohcal note on.Archbishop.I-uddleston is given overpage. For more infdrmtion please conact Mike Terry on 580-5311 .(W) 446-1840,(0 Biograpical Note on Archbishop Trevor Huddleston Archbishop Huddleston was born in June 1913 and was educated at Lancing and Christ Church College, Oxford. He was appointed Priest-in-Charge of the -Sophi'At-wn and Orlando Anglican missions In the Diocese of Johannesburg in 1943. It was in the townships of Johannesburg, known today as Soweto, that Father Huddleston, as he was affectionately knbwn by thousands-of Africans, emerged as an aoutspoken and prdMe-4 coppenent d:f aparth-iM' The Church of Christ the King in Sophiatown became a centhe of Christian and cultufallife, as well as a focus o.r. opposition to he wsg and policies of the Nafionalist Government, and Father Huddleston was at the cehtro of numetpus campaigns, in particular against the 'Bantu Edueation A6ti' In.Otober 1954 Father Htddlestqn angered both the Na~ilonalist Government *and: .he ~curch hierachy when he wrote an article 4-n-the Observer entitled 11The,.Church Sleeps On",, in which he criised those in the Church in South Africa who "are still prepared to believe (or are they?) that some good can come of this great evil". He concluded the article with an appeal for a cultural boycott qf South Africa. The following year he was recalled to England., But. in that same year he participated in the Congress of the People, the most representative non-racial gathering in South Africa's history, where he was honoured by the African National Congress of South Africa with its -highest :Award, the Asitwalandwe, becomirig one of only three people at that time who had' been Awarded thIs honour... (The others were Chief Albert L uthuli and Dr Yusuf Dtadoo),. In England he served th6 Community of the ResurreCttSn, the Anglican religious order of which he had been a member since 1941,. until 1960 when he was appointed Bishop ofJ asasi in- Tanzania. In the meantime his book, 'Naught for your Confort", was published. This book marked a turning-point in the understanding of millions of people in the Englishspeaking world about the evils of white domination in South Africa. Bishop Huddleston returned to England as Bishop of Stepney in 1968 and be6ame deeply involved in race relations.in Britain, while continuing to work closely with the AAM. In 1978 he was elected Bishop of Mauritius and later the same year Archbishop in the Province of the Indian Ocean. Trevor -Htiddleston -hs-been actively involved -in the work of the AAM .since its _inceptiqz. He addressed, with Julius Nyorere the--funding meping. of the AAM on June 26th, 1959, playe4 a prominent role in the launchng of the "boycott South African goods" campaign in Britain, and worked in support of the call of Chief-Albert Luthuli for economic sanctions to be imposed against South Africa. After his return to Britain in 1968 he served as one of the AAM's Vice-Presidents. He led a delegation to meet Ministers from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence at the height of the Soweto uprising in 1976. In October 1977 he addressed a large protest meeting in Westminster Central Hall following the death of Steve Biko and the banning of black consciousness and other anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa. In 1978 he addressed a gathering in the House of Commons to launch International Anti-Apartheid Year..