Peter Storey papers, 1950-2014

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Summary

Creator:
Storey, Peter John, 1938-
Abstract:
South African Methodist Church leader and anti-apartheid activist. The Peter Storey Papers contain correspondence, datebooks, articles, lectures, sermons, committee and subject files, clippings, scrapbooks, videotapes, and electronic records. The collection documents Peter Storey's leadership and active involvement in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, the South African Council of Churches, the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Gun Free South Africa, and other religious and anti-apartheid groups. Major subjects include Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, urban ministry, crisis intervention, and political violence and elections in South Africa. Materials range in date from circa 1950 to 2006. Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive.
Extent:
9 Linear Feet
11.9 Gigabytes
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.01260

Background

Scope and content:

The Peter Storey Papers contain correspondence, datebooks, articles, lectures, sermons, committee and subject files, clippings, scrapbooks, videotapes, and electronic records. The collection documents Peter Storey's leadership and active involvement in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, the South African Council of Churches, the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Gun Free South Africa, and other religious and anti-apartheid groups. Major subjects include Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, urban ministry, crisis intervention, and political violence and elections in South Africa. Materials range in date from circa 1950 to 2014. Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive.

Biographical / historical:

Peter Storey (b. 1938) was schooled in Cape Town, South Africa, spent some time in the South African Navy, and then trained for the Methodist ministry at Rhodes University. Storey pastored churches in Cape Town, and later served as a chaplain to Robben Island prison, where he ministered to Nelson Mandela. After two years in Australia, Storey returned to District Six, a "coloured" community in Cape Town whose people faced forced removal under apartheid law. Storey was prominent in the fight against these removals, at the same time launching a number of ministries, including The Carpenter's House, Cape Town's first non-racial community center, and founded Dimension, the national newspaper of the Methodist Church, which took an uncompromising anti-apartheid stance under his nine-year editorship.

He was appointed to Johannesburg's Central Methodist Church in 1976, the year of the Soweto uprising, and immediately questioned the all-white nature of the congregation. The following years saw the loss of some 200 white members, but also the creation of the first fully integrated Methodist church in the land. The Central Methodist Mission--as it became known--was a center of protest action against apartheid, often being surrounded and sometimes invaded by government Security Forces.

During this period Storey became Vice President of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and was elected President of this body in 1981. In this position, he and Bishop Desmond Tutu, who was then General Secretary, steered the SACC through its most controversial and embattled era of anti-apartheid action. This included facing the notorious Eloff Commission of Inquiry into the SACC. His testimony to the Commission has been published under the title Here We Stand.

In 1984 Storey was elected President of the Methodist Church and co-lead an ecumenical delegation to the United Nations and Europe to urge international pressure against the South African Government's forced removal policy. He then became Bishop of the Central District, including Johannesburg and Soweto. He also headed up the Journey to the New Land transformation process, which has redesigned the Methodist Church for its mission in the new South Africa.

Committed to peacemaking, he co-chaired the Wits-Vaal Peace Secretariat, responsible for keeping the peace in the Johannesburg region in the run-up to the first democratic elections and became Patron of the Methodist Order of Peacemakers, which focused on non-violence. He was first chairperson of the Gunfree South Africa movement, and he was a member of President Mandela's Selection Committee for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Storey has received honorary Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Law degrees. His international ministry has included frequent preaching and lecturing journeys to the United States, Europe, and Australia, and he has addressed many conferences related to the situation in South Africa, the truth and reconciliation process, and world peace.

[Biographical Note adapted from: "February 11, 1999 - Rev. Dr. Peter Storey at STH." Boston University School of Theology, March 24, 2003. http://www.bu.edu/sth/news/archive/storey.html]

Acquisition information:
The Peter Storey papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from Peter Storey in 2006 and 2014.
Processing information:

Processed by Jill Katte, John Mayrose, Patrick Stawski, March 2007. Electronic records addition (2014-0189) processed by [Matthew] Farrell, September 2020.

Encoded by Jill Katte, March 2007

Materials may not have been ordered and described beyond their original condition.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2007-0038, 2007-0039, 2014-0189.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Access restricted. Some materials in this collection include student records. In accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 as amended, Duke University permits students to inspect their education records and limits the disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records. Contact Research Services for more information.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are electronic records that require special equipment. Contact Research Services with questions.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are fragile audiovisual/photographic formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Peter Storey Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

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