A former police officer who became the service’s chaplain in 2003, served as the charismatic pastor of the church founded and led by his parents and for more than a decade as Bishop of the New Testament Churches of God.

The Right Reverend Lloyd Duncan, the pastor of Greater Smith Hill New Testament Church of God, was the son of Jamaican immigrants John and Evelyn Duncan.

Both were ministers, and Bishop Duncan would follow in their footsteps with what he called “authentic contemporary Sunday service”.

Bishop Duncan told The Royal Gazettein 2023: “My wife and I have modelled our ministry after my parents’ ministry, which was really about loving people.

“That’s our brand — loving people the way Jesus did.”

He recalled: “My dad was a pastor all of my life and I was really intrigued by his pulpit ability. His strong suit was preaching and I was drawn to it.

“I started off as a musician in ministry. I was about 13 years old when I started playing the organ and from there I was always following my dad wherever he went.

“He saw that I had an interest and then eventually my name was put forward to pursue ministry in the church.”

The church became a landmark on Curving Avenue in Pembroke, although the congregation partnered during the pandemic with the Midland Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hamilton Parish to hold services there.

David Burt, the Premier, offered condolences in the House of Assembly last week on behalf of the Government, calling Bishop Duncan “always very spirited in carrying the word forward”.

Mr Burt recalled Bishop Duncan’s innovative outreach to the community, which included television commercials, with a light-hearted evening advertisement for “the church in the hood that will do you some good”.

Wayne Furbert, the Junior Minister of Finance, gave an emotional tribute to Bishop Duncan as a powerful preacher. Michael Weeks, the Minister of National Security, saluted him as a lifelong friend.

Bishop Duncan was initially a police officer after a brief spell at the Bermuda College. He served from 1982 to 1991.

He decided to pursue a higher calling in 1991 and left the island for Charlotte, North Carolina, to attend East Coast Bible College.

Back home, working at International Bonded Couriers, Bishop Duncan continued his studies, earning a master’s degree in Christian counselling and a doctorate of ministry from Andersonville Theological Seminary in Camilla, Georgia.

His wife, Shanda, obtained the same degree. The couple, who married in June 1986, shared a life of ministry and have a daughter, Shaloi, and son, Joshua.

In 1999, Bishop Duncan assumed his parents’ role as pastor of the church after his father retired. Its membership surged.

In 2008, Mr Duncan was elected as the administrative Bishop, or denominational leader, of the New Testament Church of God in Bermuda, a position he held for 12 years.

As a spiritual leader, Bishop Duncan took a prominent community role, backing traditional values and speaking out on matters ranging from gang violence to gambling.

The church loomed large in its Curving Avenue community with charitable block parties and prayer vigils.

Bishop Duncan was also musically inclined, with a strong role in gospel festivals.

In 2024, he was appointed to the Covenant Keepers International Alliance by the Grammy award-winning American gospel music artist the Right Reverend Hezekiah Walker.

In 2010, after the island was shocked by a murder during a Good Friday family day, Bishop Duncan led an open-air service at the scene, telling hundreds of attendees: “We speak against the spirit of murder.

“We speak against the spirit of violence in the name of Jesus. Bring back the camaraderie, bring back brotherhood — bring back love.”

Bishop Duncan’s uncompromising values occasionally put him at odds with changing social mores.

In 2013, as the Government moved to amend the Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, he chastised the recently elected One Bermuda Alliance administration — asking lawmakers to “exercise biblical caution and spiritual restraint as you seek to approve what God’s word does not endorse”.

While his stance earned him some critics, Bishop Duncan insisted he was abiding by biblical values, telling the Gazette: “As a spiritual voice in the land, that’s all I’m seeking to do.”

He insisted that all human beings were entitled to fairness and dignity, recalling some of the painful slurs he had endured in childhood because of his parents’ Jamaican origins.

Bishop Duncan described his pastoring as “laser-focused on loving the people”.

• The Right Reverend Lloyd Eden Duncan, a bishop who served as pastor of the Greater Smith Hill New Testament Church of God, was born on September 23, 1963. He died on March 2, 2026, aged 62