The Bishop of Lichfield writes:
THE Rt Revd Dr Gregor Duncan, who died on 21 November, aged 75, after succumbing to cancer, was a bishop of deep faith, generous personality, strong opinions, and wide-ranging scholarship.
Born into a Glaswegian family of Church of Scotland affiliation, his prodigious academic gifts led him south, first to Cambridge and then Oxford, and it was through the Church of England that he received his priestly vocation, formation, and ordination. Training at Cuddesdon and a curacy at Oakham Parish Church gave him a firmly shaped, disciplined, and traditional pattern of priesthood from which he never deviated; in his last days, his joy was to join in saying the daily office with friends, and it was evident to all who knew him that celebrating the eucharist with his people was the high point of every week for him as a priest and as a bishop.
In 1987, Gregor returned to Scotland. After a couple of years’ serving at Edinburgh Theological College, he entered into the pastoral ministry in the diocese of Glasgow & Galloway which was to take up the rest of his life. During his time as Rector of St Columba’s, Largs, and then of St Ninian’s, Pollokshields, his warm friendliness, generosity of spirit, commitment to high-quality liturgy and preaching, and assiduous pastoral care made him both deeply loved and widely respected (the former response being shared with successive rectory cats).
It was no surprise to anybody but himself that, in 1997, he was appointed as Dean of the diocese, and still less that, in 2010, he was elected and consecrated as its Bishop. Throughout his episcopate, his primary attention was to the care and happiness of his clergy and of the charges committed to their care: the former regularly found themselves recipients of their bishop’s notably generous hospitality, and the latter regularly welcomed him for visits full of cheerful encouragement and memorable teaching.
Although one of the frustrations of the episcopal life is a lack of space for study and reading, this bishop’s commitment to continued learning and academic rigour never left him, as was recognised nationally in his convening of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Faith and Order Board. He was in that post when the SEC decided to change its canon on marriage, paving the way for the celebration of same-sex marriages in its churches.
He personally opposed that move, but, in explaining his view to his own diocesan synod in 2017, he said that he was speaking to them “not to try to persuade any of you to agree with me, but because I think you have a right to know what your bishop thinks about this matter”. It was characteristic of him that he should so set out his own firm opinion while acknowledging the integrity of those who disagreed with him, and continuing to treat them with love and respect; indeed, he had many strongly held opinions, but he had more people who loved him.
In January 2017, Bishop Gregor suffered a major stroke while travelling back to Glasgow after a holiday in Lichfield. Providentially, there was no accident while he was at the wheel, but the damage to his physical health was severe, and some of it was irreversible. Through months of hospitalisation and recuperation, he disciplined himself with remarkable resilience to recover as much of his capacity as he could. The results were impressive indeed.
Friends were amazed and amused to find his previous handwriting, a virtually illegible scrawl by one hand, replaced by a beautifully perspicuous script that he had taught himself with the other. Nevertheless, the stroke took its toll in increased frailty, and, with regret, he had to lay down the weighty duties of a diocesan bishop. At his farewell service on 7 October 2018, St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, was packed with people from across the diocese, come to give thanks for his ministry.
An end to office did not mean an end to ministry. In retirement, he continued his priestly ministry for as long as he could, serving as an assistant priest in Glasgow churches and acting as a mentor and spiritual guide to many. A month before he died, it was a great joy for him to be able to preach and to celebrate one more time each at the eucharist in St Ninian’s, Pollokshields, whose clergy and faithful ministered to him to the end.
He is survived by his beloved sister, Morag, and by a wide and deep circle of friends, all of whom have been touched by the life and witness of a priest who once said of himself: “It’s not always easy for me, but I just want to be kind to people, because God has been so kind to me.”
