Bruce Duncan (priest)

Bruce Duncan, MBE (born 28 January 1938) is a retired Anglican priest, chaplain, and academic administrator. From 1995 to 2002, he was the first Principal of Sarum College, an ecumenical theological college in Salisbury, England.^[1][2]

Duncan was born on 28 January 1938 to Andrew Allan Duncan and of Dora Duncan (née Young).^[2] He was educated at St Albans School, then an all-boys private school in St Albans, Hertfordshire.^[2] He studied at the University of Leeds, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1960.^[1] In 1965, he matriculated into Cuddesdon College, an Anglo-Catholic theological college near Oxford.^[1] For the next two years, he studied theology and trained for Holy Orders.^[1]

Duncan's first career was in the charity sector. In 1959, he founded Children's Relief International (CRI) with Bernard Faithfull-Davies: CRI ran holiday camps for deprived children, and merged into Save the Children in the 1970s.^[3] He served as director of CRI from 1960 to 1962.^[2] He also founded the Northorpe Hall Trust in 1962, and served as its director from 1962 to 1965.^[2] Now known as the Northorpe Hall Child & Family Trust, it works with "children facing challenges to their emotional well-being and mental health".^[4]

Duncan was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon on 21 May 1967 by Howard Cruse, Bishop of Knaresborough.^[5] He was ordained as a priest on 9 June 1968 by John Moorman, Bishop of Ripon.^[6] From 1967 to 1969, he served his curacy at St Bartholomew's Church, Armley, an Anglo-Catholic church in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds.^[1][2] During this time, he was also curate-in-charge of the Church of St Mary of Bethany, Leeds.^[2] He then returned to his charity work, once more as Director of Children's Relief International, and also held two short-term posts:^[1] he was honorary curate of St Mary the Less, Cambridge from 1969 to 1970, and Chaplain to the Order of the Holy Paraclete in Whitby, Yorkshire, from 1970 to 1971.^[2]

In 1971, Duncan moved to the Diocese in Europe and was based at Christ Church, Vienna.^[1] From 1971 to 1975, he also served as chaplain to the British ambassadors to Austria, to Hungary, and to Czechoslovakia.^[2]

In 1975, Duncan returned to England and joined the Diocese of Exeter as Vicar of the Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon, Crediton.^[1][2] He was additionally Rural Dean of Cadbury between 1976 and 1981.^[1] His parish joined with another in 1982 and he became Rector of Crediton and Shobrooke.^[2] He once more served as Rural Dean of Cadbury, from 1984 to 1986.^[1]

Duncan left Devon in 1986 when he was appointed a Residentiary Canon of Manchester Cathedral.^[1] In July 1995, it was announced that he had been appointed the Director of Sarum College, an ecumenical theological college in the Diocese of Salisbury.^[7] Taking up the post that year, he was also made a Canon and Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral.^[1] By 1998, his position had been renamed as Principal of the college.^[8] He retired from full-time ministry in September 2002, and was succeeded as principal by Tim Macquiban.^[9][10]

Though formally retired in 2002, Duncan has led an active retirement.^[1] He held permission to officiate in the Diocese of Exeter from 2002 to 2008.^[1] From 2003 to 2004, he was the Lazenby and St Luke's Chaplain at the University of Exeter.^[2] He has been a Commissary in the UK for the Bishop of North East Caribbean and Aruba since 2006.^[2] He has held permission to officiate in the Diocese of Salisbury since 2008 and in the Diocese in Europe since 2010.^[1] He has been an honorary curate at the Church of St Martin, Salisbury from 2010 to 2015.^[1]

In 1966, Duncan married Margaret Holmes Smith. Together they have three daughters.^[2]

In the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours, Duncan was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to the Care of Young People".^[11] He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity (DD) degree by the Graduate Theological Foundation in 2002.^[2][12] On 8 November 2004, he was awarded the Cross of St Augustine by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[13]