Guthrie Michael Scott (30 July 1907 – 14 September 1983) was an

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and anti-apartheid activist, who joined in the defiance of the apartheid system in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in the 1940s – a long struggle for social justice in that country. He was also an early advocate of

nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...

Life

Scott was born in Sussex on 30 July 1907 and educated at King's College, Taunton,

Chichester Theological College Chichester Theological College (1838–1994) was an Anglican theological college for the Diocese of Chichester in West Sussex, Sussex, England. Its churchmanship was high church and Anglo-Catholic. History Chichester Theological College was ...

and St Paul's College, Grahamstown. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

by George Bell in 1932 and began his career with curacies in

Slaugham Slaugham ( or ) is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located to the south of Crawley, on the A23 road to Brighton. The civil parish covers an area of . At the 2001 census it had a population of ...

and

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. He was

Domestic Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligen ...

to the Bishop of Bombay from 1935 to 1937; and then served at St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta. In 1943 he moved to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

where he was

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

to the St Alban's Mission. While there he became the first white man to be jailed for resisting that country's racial laws. In 1952, he co-founded the Africa Bureau, "an organisation to advise and support Africans who wished to oppose by constitutional means political decisions affecting their lives and futures imposed by alien governments." He was a leading international promoter of Namibian independence along with Chief Hosea Kutako and Captain Hendrik Samuel Witbooi. For his efforts in the

Namibian War of Independence The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...

, he has a prominent street named after him in

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

. With

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

, he was co-founder of the Committee of 100 in 1960. He met

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

during Ghana's celebration of independence. In later life, Scott was a friend of the philosopher

. He died on 14 September 1983. There is a memorial window to him at St Pancras Church, Kingston near Lewes. Along with his philosopher friend

, Scott was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution. As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

Works

Scott wrote an autobiography ''A Time to Speak'', published by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

in 1958.

Notes

References

1907 births 1983 deaths 20th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Chichester Theological College British anti-war activists British expatriates in South Africa English anti–nuclear weapons activists English religious writers Anglican anti-apartheid activists People educated at King's College, Taunton People from Crawley South West African anti-apartheid activists St Paul's College, Grahamstown alumni World Constitutional Convention call signatories {{AntiApartheid-activist-stub