The Right Rev John (Jack) Coote Duggan, former Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, who died on July 20th aged 82, was well known for his efforts to build on the links between the Church of Ireland and the Protestant Episcopal churches in Spain and Portugal. He was honoured for those endeavours when he was appointed an honorary assistant bishop of the Diocese in Europe earlier this year.
Jack Duggan was born in 1918, and was educated at The High School, Dublin, before going on to Trinity College Dublin. There he was a brilliant student: he was elected to a foundation scholarship in 1940 and graduated that year with a first-class honours degree in philosophy - then labelled "mental and moral sciences" in Trinity. He continued to attend scholars' dinners every 10 years - his last one was earlier this year.
After completing his training for the ministry at the Church of Ireland Divinity Hostel, he was ordained a deacon in 1941 and a priest the following year, and served as curate in Saint Luke's, Cork, for two years before moving to Taney Parish, Dublin, reputedly the largest Church of Ireland parish in the Republic - where he was curate for the next five years, from 1943 to 1948. During that second curacy he completed his Bachelor of Divinity degree.
In 1948, he moved to the Diocese of Meath and Kildare to become rector of his first parish, Portarlington, Co Laois, where he served for seven years until 1955. This was followed by 14 years as Rector of Saint Paul's, Glenageary, Co Dublin - from 1955 to 1969. Glenageary has long been regarded as a good training ground for potential bishops, and his curates during his incumbency there included a future Archbishop of Dublin, Walton Empey, who was his curate from 1958 to 1960 - and who gave the address at his funeral on Monday last - and the present Bishop of Ossory, the Right Rev John Neill, who became curate in 1969. That year, Jack Duggan left Glenageary for the West of Ireland, and his successor, appropriately, was the future Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, Bishop Noel Willoughby.
He was invited to become Rector of Aughaval (Westport) and Achill Union in Co Mayo, but with the job came the additional responsibilities of Archdeacon of Tuam, Killala and Achonry - one of the smallest but most far-flung dioceses in the Church of Ireland. With the translation of Bishop Arthur Butler to the Diocese of Connor later that year, Jack Duggan was elected Bishop of Tuam in November. He was consecrated bishop in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, in February 1970 by Archbishop George Simms of Armagh, Archbishop Alan Buchanan of Dublin and five other bishops, including the future Archbishop of Armagh, John Armstrong (then Bishop of Cashel), the co-chairman of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, ARCIC, Dr Henry McAdoo (then Bishop of Ossory and later Archbishop of Dublin), and, of course, his predecessor, Bishop Arthur Butler.
Jack Duggan's intimate connections with the Reformed Episcopal churches of Spain and Portugal began in September 1971, when he and his wife, Mary, were on holiday near Marbella - and attended an English-language service in Saint George's Church, Malaga. Introductions followed in the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church, which owed its origins to a decision in 1894 by Archbishop Plunket of Dublin to provide Anglican orders for Spanish clergy who had formed a new church. The Irish Anglican connection with the Iberian churches continued throughout the difficult days of the Franco and Salazar regimes, and Jack Duggan built on that tradition, taking an active role in the Spanish and Portuguese Church Aid Society, and acting as locum tenens in Saint George's, Malaga, which was shared by the Anglican Church and the Episcopal Church.
In 1978, he represented the bishops of the Church of Ireland at the Partners-in-Mission Consultation on behalf of the Iberian Churches, in Lisbon, and supported the request made at that conference for the two churches to be integrated into the Anglican Communion as full members - a move approved at the Primates' meeting in November 1979. In 1980, he took part in the consecration of Bishop Fernando da Luz Soares for the Portuguese or Lusitanian Church, and he was present at Saint Paul's Cathedral, Lisbon, when the Lusitanian Church was formally received into the Anglican Communion.
When he retired in 1985, Jack Duggan was succeeded in Tuam by a former curate in Glenageary, Bishop John Neill. Following his retirement, he moved back to the Dun Laoghaire area, but over the next 15 years continued to take an active interest in the work of mission societies and Christian Aid. As a bishop, he had first hand experience of mission in Africa, again acting as locum tenens in a parish in Zimbabwe in 1983, and he returned to Zimbabwe during his retirement to take temporary charge of a vacant diocese.
Earlier this year, Bishop Duggan's support of the Iberian churches was recognised when he was appointed an honorary assistant bishop of the Diocese in Europe. The Suffragan Bishop of Europe, the Right Rev Henry Scriven, was among the episcopal colleagues at his funeral in Saint Paul's, Glenageary, this week.
The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, who paid this tribute to Bishop Duggan, said: "The Church of Ireland will long remember with gratitude the episcopal ministry of Bishop Jack Duggan in the west. His pastoral concern for the Church of Ireland people was expressed through faithful service to and leadership of clergy and laity in a scattered diocese. His ecumenical contacts with other traditions were greatly appreciated. In retirement he gave great service to the Anglican Church in Spain and Portugal.
"In all his ministry Mrs Mary Duggan supported him to the full and was herself greatly loved by the people of Tuam diocese."
Bishop Duggan is survived by his wife, Mary, their two children, Brian and Sheila, and four granddaughters, Kate, Hannah, Rachel and Emma.
The Right Rev John Coote Duggan: born 1918, died July 2000