Robert William Duncan (born July 5, 1948) is an American Anglican bishop. He was the first primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) from June 2009 to June 2014.[1] In 1997, he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. 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 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 (2006). At the time of Duncan's departure from the Episcopal Church, he was described as "probably the top conservative Episcopal bishop in America".[2]
Early life and ministry
Duncan was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1948. His mother suffered from mental illness and he found refuge from the tumult of his family life in prayer and meditation at Christ Episcopal Church in Bordentown.
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 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.[3] 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, 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".[4] 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)."[5][6]
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".[7] In a possible sign of schism, St. Brendan's, a liberal parish in Franklin Park, Pennsylvania, announced in February 2005 that it no longer wished to be under Duncan's oversight.[8]
In July 2007, Duncan made remarks criticizing Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 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."[9] The statement critical of the Anglican Communion's worldwide leader led Ephraim Radner to resign from the Anglican Communion Network, which he had assisted in founding, out of a concern that "Bishop Duncan has, in the end, decided to start a new church."[10] 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'."[11] At the request of Rowan Williams, Duncan attended the 2007 Primates' Meeting 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".[12] 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."[12] Duncan replied by letter on March 14, 2008.[13] 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.[14]
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[s] that all ecclesiastical and related secular offices held by Bishop Duncan shall be terminated and vacated at that time."[15] The legal validity of the decree of deposition was questioned by Duncan's attorney.[16]
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
Duncan at Nashotah House in 2014
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, 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.[17]
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.[18]
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."[19]
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.[20]
He served as president of the Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, an ecumenical organization that binds together Christians of various denominations.
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership, after the Church of England. In 2016 it stated that its membership was “over 18 million", out of a total Nigerian population of 190 million. It is "effectively the largest province in the Communion." As measured by active membership, the Church of Nigeria has nearly 2 million active baptised members. According to a study published by Cambridge University Press in the Journal of Anglican Studies, there are between 4.94 and 11.74 million Anglicans in Nigeria. The Church of Nigeria is the largest Anglican province on the continent of Africa, accounting for 41.7% of Anglicans in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is "probably the first [largest within the Anglican Communion] in terms of active members."
The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is the country with most dioceses, now numbering 11.
The Church of Pakistan is a united Protestant Church in Pakistan founded in 1970; it holds membership in the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, and the World Methodist Council.
The Anglican Church of South America is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, formerly known as the Episcopal Church of Sudan, is a province of the Anglican Communion located in South Sudan. The province consists of eight Internal Provinces and 61 dioceses. The current archbishop and primate is Justin Badi Arama. It received the current naming after the inception of the Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, on 30 July 2017.
The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is a province of the Anglican Communion, and it is composed by 41 dioceses. The current Leader and Archbishop of Kenya is Jackson Ole Sapit. The Anglican Church of Kenya claims 5 million total members. According to a study published in the Journal of Anglican Studies and by Cambridge University Press, the ACK claims 5 million adherents, with no official definition of membership, with nearly 2 million officially affiliated members, and 310,000 active baptised members. The church became part of the Province of East Africa in 1960, but Kenya and Tanzania were divided into separate provinces in 1970.
Michael Bruce Curry is an American bishop who is the 27th and current presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church. Elected in 2015, he is the first African American to serve as presiding bishop in The Episcopal Church. He was previously bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.
The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.
The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), formerly known as Global South (Anglican), is a communion of 25 Anglican churches, of which 22 are provinces of the Anglican Communion, plus the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Church in Brazil. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is also officially listed as a member.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
The Anglican Church of Rwanda is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 13 dioceses in Rwanda. The primate of the province is Laurent Mbanda, consecrated on 10 June 2018.
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 Anglican Communion, the rise of secularism, as well as concerns with HIV/AIDS and poverty. As a result of the conference, the Jerusalem Declaration was issued and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was created. The conference participants also called for the creation of the Anglican Church in North America as an alternative to both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada, and declared that recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury is not necessary to Anglican identity.
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a communion of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative Anglicans met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference, creating the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which was rebranded as GAFCON in 2017.
Foley Thomas Beach is an American bishop. He is the second primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, a church associated with the Anglican realignment movement. Foley was elected as the church's primate on June 21, 2014. His enthronement took place on October 9, 2014. He is married to Alison and they have two adult children.
The Anglican Diocese of All Nations is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America and formerly of the Church of Nigeria North American Mission. It was one of the four missionary dioceses of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, which was founded in 2005. As such, it had a dual church body of the ACNA and the Church of Nigeria in the United States, until May 2019. It comprises 35 parishes in 11 American states, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Washington and in 3 Canadian provinces, Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The state with most parishes is Texas, with 14.
Andrew John Lines is a British Anglican bishop. Since June 2017, he has been the Missionary Bishop to Europe of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a province outside the Anglican Communion. In 2020, he became the first presiding bishop of the Anglican Network in Europe, a "proto-province" recognized by the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. Since 2000, he has been Mission Director and CEO of Crosslinks. He is also the chairman of the executive committee of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), the missionary arm of GAFCON in England. In June 2017, it was announced that he would be made a bishop for ACNA and GAFCON; he was consecrated on 30 June 2017.
The Anglican Church of Chile is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers four dioceses in Chile. Formed in 2018, the province is the 40th in the Anglican Communion. The province consists of four dioceses. Its primate and metropolitan is the Archbishop of Chile, Héctor Zavala.
The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is a small Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition with churches in Europe. Formed as part of the worldwide Anglican realignment, it is a member jurisdiction of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) and is under the primatial oversight of the chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council. ANiE runs in parallel with the Free Church of England (RECUK). GAFCON recognizes ANiE as a "proto-province" operating separately from the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and other Anglican Communion jurisdictions in Great Britain and the European continent. ANiE is the body hierarchically above the preexisting Anglican Mission in England; the former is the equivalent of a province whilst the latter is a convocation, the equivalent of a diocese.
Paul Donison is a Canadian-born American Anglican bishop. His primary role in ordained ministry is as rector and dean of Christ Church Plano, the largest church and provincial pro-cathedral of the Anglican Church in North America. Since 2024, he has also served as general secretary of Gafcon and assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Gasabo.
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