Bruce Duncan is an Anglican priest who was born in London but has many associations with the North. He was a student at the Hostel of the Resurrection in Leeds (now sadly closed) and a graduate of Leeds University. Margaret, his wife, is a Yorkshire woman born in Shipley. Together they set up a charity working with families in Displaced Persons camps in Germany and Hungarian refugee children in Austria. They then worked closely with the Probation Service in Leeds and established the Northorpe Hall Trust based in Mirfield.

Ordained in the Ripon diocese, Bruce served his curacy in Armley, Leeds, and was an Assistant Chaplain at the prison. With their young family of three daughters, Bruce and Margaret then spent a year with the OHP Sisters in Whitby before moving to Vienna as Anglican Chaplain in Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

After eleven years as Rector of Crediton in Devon they moved to Manchester where Bruce was a Cathedral Canon from 1986-95. He was then asked to take on the recently closed Salisbury & Wells Theological College in Salisbury Cathedral Close. So he became the Founder-Principal of Sarum College, a flourishing ecumenical centre for Christian study and research.

Bruce is a qualified Myers-Briggs practitioner and has led many workshops in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has a particular interest in the relationship between depth psychology and Christian spirituality (as well for bookbinding and growing clematis!) and is author of Pray Your Way: Your Personality and God (DLT 1993, reprinted 1994, 1995, 1998 and 2000). His honours include the MBE for his work with children and young people, the Cross of St Augustine (a personal award by the Archbishop of Canterbury), and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Graduate Theological Foundation, Indiana, USA. He is a Canon Emeritus of Salisbury where he and Margaret now live.

Bruce writes:

Scargill made a great impression on me as a young man. There is nothing to beat the residential experience in a welcoming, praying Christian community – ‘lives shared, lives transformed’.

After a lifelong ministry which has always involved fundraising, strategic planning, and dreaming the dreams which God alone can bring to reality, I am glad to be able to help the Scargill Movement Council in the major task they have undertaken. My prayer is that this 50th anniversary will be celebrated by a renewed vision, a renewed community, and generous resources so that Scargill can be all that God longs for it to be, to nourish and grow Christian disciples in our increasingly secular and multi-faith UK. “We need to raise a great deal of money. If you have fundraising experience, or contacts with grant-giving trusts, companies, or Christian philanthropists who might support us, I would love to hear from you.