A Brief Introduction

I have been asked to write a few biographical notes about myself. I was ordained in 1977 for the Diocese of Bendigo having been trained at St. Michael’s House, Crafers. I was born in England but came out to Australia with my parents and older brother when I was six. We lived in Sydney but Fr. Austin Day, then rector of Christchurch St. Laurence, encouraged me to attend his old alma mater of St. Michael’s.

I spent one year there straight from school and then took up a Commonwealth Scholarship at Sydney University to study for a BA in History and English. Having completed that in 1974, and married Kerri in 1972, we came to Adelaide where I again entered St. Michael’s House. We spent three years there.

I gained a BTh and we gained two children.Then followed two curacies and my own parish in Bendigo Diocese. We returned to Adelaide Diocese at the invitation of the Rector of Stirling Parish where I became part of the ministry team there. By this stage we had four children.

I was asked to tutor in Church History which led me to think that as I was teaching I should gain some understanding of education. So I went part time in the parish and undertook a Dip Ed at Adelaide Universe. It was only towards the end of the year that I realised that my full time position had been filled and that now with five children I should look for another position.  

As it happened, Launceston Church Grammar was looking for a chaplain and so we moved to Tasmania and after ten years in parish ministry I moved towards a different path, that of school chaplaincy which naturally enough began with the birth of our sixth child!

The rest of my ministry was spent in schools in Adelaide (again), Western Australia and Queensland. After St Peter’s College in Adelaide, Kerri and I did spend four years in South Yorkshire where I was the parish priest of St Mary’s with St Paul’s, Barnsley. I kept my hand in education as I was the chair of governors for the local parish school as well as teaching Classics and Modern History at Barnsley Sixth Form College.

The pull of home and eleven grandchildren brought us back to Australia in 2014 when I resumed school chaplaincy: first at All Saints’ College, Perth and then St Hilda’s Girls School Southport, Queensland. I retired at the beginning of this year. Kerri and I then once again returned to Adelaide where after long service, I took up a part time ministry in St Cuthbert’s Parish at Easter.

     Fr Patrick Duckworth                                                                                               St. Barnabas and St. Cuthbert’s

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

In my experience, the Anglican Church seems to have three main threads of worship: traditional, contemporary and charismatic. When I came to St. Cuthbert’s I discovered that the Parish was in dicsussions with St. Barnabas (just up the road as it were) about a Church Plant. Usually these plantings start small in a school assembly hall or similar venue.

In Prospect, this will take a different course. An informal evening service is envisioned which will take place at St. Cuthbert’s but organised and run by people from St. Barnabas both ordained and lay. So it will be a church plant but one created by two parishes in co-operation. Much prayer and planning has has been for this endeavour.

The fruits of which will be seen early next year as the monthly prayer meetings become a weekly service. Your continued prayers would be gratefully appreciated.