Robert William Duncan (born July 5, 1948) is an American Anglican bishop. He was the first primate and

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) from June 2009 to June 2014.Anglican Church in North America biography of Robert Duncan
Accessed April 15, 2010. In 1997, he was elected bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is a diocese in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Geographically, it encompasses 11 counties in Western Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1865 by dividing the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. ...

. In 2008, a majority of the diocesan convention voted to leave the diocese and the Episcopal Church and, in October 2009, named their new church the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. (The Episcopal Church continued to maintain its Diocese of Pittsburgh under new leadership.) Duncan served as bishop for the new Anglican diocese until 10 September 2016 upon the installation of his successor, Jim Hobby. Duncan served as moderator of the

Anglican Communion Network The Anglican Communion Network (ACN; officially the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes) was a theologically conservative network of Anglican and Episcopalian dioceses and parishes in the United States that was working toward Angl ...

from 2003 to 2009 and chairman of the Common Cause Partnership from 2004 until the creation of the Anglican Church in North America. He has honorary doctorates from General Theological Seminary (1996) and

Nashotah House Nashotah House is an Anglicanism, Anglican seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin. The seminary opened in 1842 and received its official charter in 1847. The institution is independent and generally regarded as one of the more theologically Conservatism, ...

(2006). At the time of Duncan's departure from the Episcopal Church, he was described as "probably the top conservative Episcopal bishop in America".

Early life and ministry

Duncan was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1948. His mother suffered from

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

and he found refuge from the tumult of his family life in prayer and meditation at Christ Episcopal Church in Bordentown. Duncan attended

Bordentown Military Institute The Bordentown Military Institute was a private high school in Bordentown, New Jersey, United States, from 1881 to 1973. History The institute was created in 1881, when Reverend William Bowen (minister), William Bowen purchased the Spring Villa Fem ...

where he graduated valedictorian. He then entered

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

( A.B. ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'') in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. After graduating from Trinity in 1970, he enrolled at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (

M.Div. For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and di ...

, DD ''

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

'') in New York. During his time at seminary, he also studied

Scottish history The recorded begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, when the province of Britannia reached as far north as the Antonine Wall. North of this was Caledonia, inhabited by the ''Picti'', whose uprisings forced Rom ...

at Edinburgh University. Duncan was ordained as a deacon on April 22, 1972, and as a priest on October 28, 1973, the feast of Saints Simon and Jude. His first assignments were at the Chapel of the Intercession in New York City; at Grace Church in

Merchantville, New Jersey Merchantville is a borough in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 3,821,Edinburgh. From 1974 to 1978, he served as assistant dean at the General Seminary. He spent the next four years in campus ministries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serving as assistant

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

for campus ministries at the Chapel of the Cross in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

. In 1982, he was called to be rector of St. Thomas' parish in Newark, Delaware, where he served for 10 years.

Election as bishop

Duncan was a candidate for Bishop of Colorado in 1990. In 1992, Alden M. Hathaway, then Bishop of Pittsburgh and a noted theological conservative, named Duncan his canon to the ordinary. In 1995 Duncan was elected as

bishop coadjutor A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co- ...

of the diocese of Pittsburgh and succeeded Hathaway upon his retirement in 1997. Duncan was not among the nominating committee's candidates, but instead nominated from the floor of the convention, however, and was eventually elected. The Diocese of Pittsburgh was at that time considered by many in the Episcopal Church to be one of the most conservative and evangelical dioceses in the Episcopal Church. Duncan served on the program committee of the Network for Anglicans in Mission and Evangelism, an agency created at the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

Conservative leadership

Duncan quickly became the head of a group of Episcopal leaders hoping to maintain conservatism within the denomination. When openly gay priest Gene Robinson was elected

Bishop of New Hampshire The Episcopal Church of New Hampshire, a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), covers the entire U.S. state, state of New Hampshire. It was originally part of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Diocese of Ma ...

, Duncan voiced strong opposition to the election. After Robinson's election was confirmed by the church's general convention on August 5, 2003, Duncan acted as spokesman for a group of conservative bishops and lay leaders at a press conference expressing disappointment at Robinson's election. Duncan denounced the election claiming that the Episcopal Church had "departed from the historic faith and order of the Church of Jesus Christ". Duncan and Robinson were members of the same GTS class, both having taken their MDiv degrees in 1973. In January 2004, Duncan became the leader of the newly formed Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, a conservative action group whose stated mission was to allow "Episcopalians to remain in communion with the vast majority of the worldwide Anglican Communion who have declared either impaired or broken communion with the Episcopal Church (United States)." At the March 17, 2005, meeting of Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, Duncan read a speech in which he admitted that the rift between the two sides may be "irreconcilable". In a possible sign of

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

, St. Brendan's, a liberal parish in

Franklin Park, Pennsylvania Franklin Park is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,470 at the 2010 census. Geography Franklin Park is located at (40.590459, -80.092046). According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough ...

, announced in February 2005 that it no longer wished to be under Duncan's oversight. In July 2007, Duncan made remarks criticizing Rowan Williams, the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, for inadequately supporting "orthodox" breakaways from ECUSA, declaring, "The cost is his office... To lose that historic office is a cost of such magnitude that God must be doing a new thing." The statement critical of the Anglican Communion's worldwide leader led Ephraim Radner to resign from the

, which he had assisted in founding, out of a concern that "Bishop Duncan has, in the end, decided to start a new church." Radner explained, "Bishop Duncan has now declared the See of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference — two of the four Instruments of Communion within our tradition — to be 'lost'." At the request of Rowan Williams, Duncan attended the 2007

Primates' Meeting The Anglican Communion Primates' Meetings are regular meetings of the primates in the Anglican Communion, i.e. the principal archbishops or bishops of each (often national) ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion. There are currently 38 p ...

in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Deposition in the Episcopal Church

On January 15, 2008, the Title IV Review Committee of the Episcopal Church certified that, in its opinion, Duncan had "abandoned the Communion of this Church".http://www.episcopal-life.org/documents/PBLetterToDuncan.pdf Presiding Bishop's letter to Bishop Duncan Pending completion of this process, the three most senior bishops in the Episcopal Church had the option to inhibit Duncan from ministry but chose not to. In her letter to Duncan, the Presiding Bishop stated that she "would welcome a statement by you within the next two months providing evidence that you once more consider yourself fully subject to the doctrine, discipline and worship of this Church." Duncan replied by letter on March 14, 2008. In his response he denied all charges levelled against him. On September 18, 2008, the House of Bishops voted that Duncan be deposed from ordained ministry on charges of "abandoning the communion of the Episcopal Church". Immediately following the vote, Duncan was named a bishop-at-large of the

Anglican Province of the Southern Cone The Anglican Church of South America ( es, Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 198 ...

. Following the vote in ECUSA's House of Bishops the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, formally deposed Duncan. In the sentence Jefferts Schori declared that "from and after 12:01 a.m., Saturday, 20 September 2008, Bishop Duncan shall be deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority of God's word and sacraments conferred at ordination in this Church and further declare that all ecclesiastical and related secular offices held by Bishop Duncan shall be terminated and vacated at that time." The legal validity of the decree of deposition was questioned by Duncan's attorney. Duncan was elected the bishop of the now Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh 50 days after his deposition by the Episcopal Church.

Primate of the Anglican Church in North America

On June 21, 2009, the bishops of the Anglican Church in North America elected Duncan as the first archbishop and primate of North America. He was installed on June 25, 2009, at Christ Church in Plano, Texas. At the ceremony, conservative Anglicans in the developing world were represented by

Benjamin Nzimbi Benjamin Paul Mwanzia Nzimbi (born 1945 in Kitui District) is a Kenyan Anglican archbishop. He was the archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Bishop of the Diocese of All Saints Cathedral, from 2002 to 2009. He is married to Al ...

, the archbishop of the African Anglican Province of Kenya. Kenya was one of nine provinces of the Anglican Communion that sent representatives to the ACNA conference. Duncan stated that his role as archbishop was to "reunite a significant portion of our Anglican Church family here in North America" and indicated that he intended to serve for five years before stepping down. In October 2009, Duncan reacted to the Roman Catholic Church's proposed creation of personal ordinariates for disaffected traditionalist Anglicans by saying that although he felt that this provision would probably not be utilized by the great majority of ACNA's affiliated laity and clergy, he would happily bless those who were drawn to participate in this historic offer. At the Provincial Council of the ACNA, held at Long Beach, California, on 21 June 2011, Duncan made a positive balance of the first two years of the church: "According to the data submitted in the Annual Parochial Reports there were, in the year 2010, 987 baptisms of adults over thirty, 424 baptisms of young people aged sixteen to thirty, and 1647 baptisms of children in the ACNA dioceses, not including the congregations of our Ministry Partners. What is so stunning about this data is that the number of baptisms of those 16 and older is almost equal to the number of children baptized. What this says is that we are reaching adolescents and adults who have never known Christ, never been part of a church. This is to reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ, one sign among many that something quite extraordinary is unfolding." Duncan was one of the signatories of the statement of the Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, an organization representing 26 denominations, on April 13, 2012, expressly supporting the Roman Catholic Church in its opposition to the HHS mandate that would force Roman Catholic hospitals in the United States to pay for birth control methods not in accordance with the doctrine of the church. With Bishop

Ray Sutton Raymond Ronny Sutton (born 1950) is an American Anglican bishop. He was bishop coadjutor in the Diocese of Mid-America of the Reformed Episcopal Church, since 1999, a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America, in 2009. He is the ...

, Duncan attended a public audience in the Vatican at the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI, on 28 November 2012, whom they met and greeted afterwards on behalf of the Anglican Church in North America and the

Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (branded as GAFCON or Gafcon) is a global network of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to an ongoing theological crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative ...

. He had a meeting of four hours and a half with the

, Justin Welby, in May 2013, at Welby's invitation. He was also one of the attendants of the GAFCON II, held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 21 to 26 October 2013.

Afterwards

Duncan attended GAFCON III, held in Jerusalem, on 17–22 June 2018. He currently serves as bishop-in-residence at St Peter's Cathedral, Tallahassee FL.

Other functions

Duncan holds a number of ecclesiastical and civic duties. * Board member of

Trinity School for Ministry Trinity School for Ministry (TSM), formerly known as Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, is an Anglican seminary in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. It is generally associated with low church, evangelical Anglicanism. History In the mid 1970s, several p ...

in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a notable conservative Episcopalian seminary in the United States. * Board member of Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, an Anglo-catholic Episcopalian seminary in the United States *Board of Trustees member and sometime Vice President of the American Anglican Council 1996 to present. * President of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, a charity that reported funding projects worth $724,279 in 2007. * He has hosted and coordinated many national and international conferences, including the

Global Anglican Future Conference The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the An ...

in Jerusalem. * He served as president of the Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, an ecumenical organization that binds together Christians of various denominations.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Robert 1948 births Living people Bordentown Military Institute alumni Religious leaders from Pittsburgh University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill people American Anglo-Catholics Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America 20th-century Anglican bishops in the United States 21st-century Anglican bishops in the United States 21st-century Anglican archbishops Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Anglo-Catholic bishops People from Bordentown, New Jersey Episcopal bishops of Pittsburgh Anglican realignment people