Thursday's memorial service at Westminster Abbey saw hundreds of friends of the beloved Archbishop Desmond Tutu literally walking over the body of another evangelical non-conformist, David Livingstone.

"Over my dead body!", evangelicals of the past might have protested a mere two hundred years ago if it were suggested that one day their glorious temple of Christendom might be filled by the people of the dark continent they once sent their missionaries to enlighten (while simultaneously subjugating them through colonialism, abject racism and apartheid, the ramifications of which are still being felt to this day).

And so, it was not without a touch of irony that Thursday's memorial service at Westminster Abbey would find as many as five hundred celebrants literally walking over the dead body of the greatest of those pioneering missionaries: David Livingstone, whose body is interred beneath a marble tablet set in the hallowed floors of this magnificent 750-year-old building, close to its entrance so that all who would visit this place must walk over it.

Of course, it would be a grave injustice to lay the blame for all that followed Livingstone's exploits at his feet, for indeed, he was an evangelical non-conformist who fought against the...