Rozella Haydée White, The Love Big Coach

A beautifully honest and written remembrance of Lenny Duncan.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF AFFIRMING MINISTRIES (TFAM)
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDING BISHOP
EPISCOPAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF TRANSITION

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7, NRSVUE

It is with profound sorrow and sacred remembrance that we announce the transition of Rev./Awo lynny duncan, formerly known as Rev. Lenny Duncan, who became an ancestor on Saturday, September 5, 2026.

The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries pauses to honor a life that refused easy categories and a ministry that continually called the Church beyond the boundaries of convention and toward the liberating expansiveness of the Divine.

lynny loved God, family, community, and their people fiercely. They were a theologian, author, academic, spiritual leader, cultural worker, and uncompromising advocate for African Diasporic, BIPOC, Q***r, and marginalized communities. Their life’s work challenged religious institutions and society alike to confront the systems that deny human dignity while imagining communities rooted in justice, radical belonging, and liberating love.

lynny understood that theology must ultimately become embodied. Their scholarship was never divorced from the struggle for liberation. Their spirituality was never confined to institutional boundaries. Their pursuit of the Divine carried them into deeper engagement with African Diasporic spiritual traditions and a sacred understanding of ancestry, identity, community, and the Great Divine Spirit.

They lived unapologetically.

That freedom could be disruptive. It could challenge convention and unsettle spaces accustomed to conformity. Yet lynny understood something essential about liberation: freedom that requires us to disappear, diminish ourselves, or become more palatable to others is not freedom at all.

Their life embodied a sacred refusal to disappear.

For TFAM, this witness resonates deeply with our own theological conviction that there is room at the table for the fullness of who God has created us to be. lynny’s life reminds us that radical inclusion cannot simply be language contained within our statements; it must become a way of being in the world.

We therefore grieve this loss while giving thanks for what lynny deposited among us.

We give thanks for the books written.

We give thanks for the minds expanded.

We give thanks for the questions asked.

We give thanks for the systems challenged.

We give thanks for the people who discovered greater freedom because lynny dared to live freely.

We give thanks for a life spent searching for the Divine, pursuing justice, and insisting upon love in its many sacred expressions.

While lynny’s heart has ceased to beat, their love has not ceased.

Their words remain.
Their scholarship remains.
Their witness remains.
Their resistance remains.
Their love remains.

And now we entrust Rev./Awo lynny duncan to that great communion of saints and ancestors whose lives continue speaking from beyond the boundaries of this present existence.

We extend our deepest condolences and surround with prayer lynny’s spouse, Sarah; eldest daughter, Jenna; their younger children, whose names are intentionally withheld; their only brother, Danny; their cousins and extended family; and the extraordinary constellation of friends, colleagues, students, spiritual communities, and chosen family who loved them.

We ask the entire TFAM family to hold lynny’s family close in prayer and to honor their need for privacy as they navigate these tender and difficult days.

We also hold space for the complexity of grief. There is no single faithful way to mourn. Some will weep. Some will remember. Some will tell stories. Some will sit quietly. Some will pray in the language of the Church, while others will call upon the wisdom and presence of the ancestors.

There is room for all of it.

Because love this expansive leaves an expansive grief.

So today, TFAM joins the family and beloved community in saying:

Rest well, Rev./Awo lynny duncan.

May the God you loved receive you.
May the ancestors welcome you.
May the Great Divine Spirit surround you in joy.
May the freedom you embodied continue freeing others.
May the questions you asked continue unsettling complacency.
May the justice you pursued continue calling us forward.
And may your fierce and audacious love remain among us as sacred memory and living witness.

You fought.
You questioned.
You created.
You loved.
You lived free.

And now, beloved, rest among the ancestors.

With profound sympathy and abiding hope,

Bishop Yvette A. Flunder
Presiding Bishop
The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries

The House of Bishops
The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries

I don’t have words. Just a lot of feelings.

For all that people knew and for all that was held between two sojourners on a rocky road, trying to figure out this thing called life.

Rest now, Dear One. I hope and pray that your spirit is at peace.

Sending so much love to all who knew Lenny.

Tonight I got to see Lenny Duncan and share space and conversation with him, Ashley Elisabeth Bathe Dellagiacoma & Bishop Michael Rinehart. Lenny’s book articulates something I’ve struggled with for so long: the deep desire for the church that we love to be the church of Jesus Christ and take a stand against all that takes life. As Lenny says, the call for the church in the 21st century is to dismantle white supremacy.

This isn’t for the faint of heart. Discipleship was never meant to be. So , we beg you to so that all may experience liberation, healing, and wholeness.

I am convinced that being a good neighbor and taking care of each other can change the world for the better.

There is a lovely couple who lives behind us - we share a back fence.

Prior to my brother, his family and I moving home, this couple and my parents adopted each other.

We are talking about a relationship ghat began over 15 years ago.

They are around my age and I was so grateful for them when I didn’t live here. I knew that they would keep an eye out on my parents and that provided me tremendous comfort.

Seemingly opposite, Hayley and Simon - a British and American white couple the age of my siblings and I - and my parents - an older Black couple who had been caregivers for most of their lives - found themselves as neighbors.

Over the years, they forged a friendship. And when I returned home, the circle only grew bigger.

We watch out for each other, take care of each other’s homes and plants, share resources, and talk about things that matter.

We know that our kids are safe with them.

Hayley has accompanied me on my hysterectomy journey and was an absolute God send. The way she and other women in my life have shown up over the past few months reminds me of why we are here, on this earth, for such a time as this.

The invitations flow both ways - last night was wine with my dad and Simon at their house.

Tonight was dinner and conversations at ours. Simon even got my dad to join his fantasy football league and is teaching him about a whole new world!

I was just lurking and captured these pictures.

Two households with varied and similar life experiences, gathered around tables and in each other’s homes. Sacred space that isn’t often shared these days.

This is what community, collective care and change looks like.

This is what happens when people commit to curiosity about the world around them and embrace the other.

This is how we embody being neighbors, living and loving BIG.

And we are all better off for it.

We can change this present moment and our collective future. I believe in the power of revolutionary relationships to change and heal us all.

Are you in relationships like ours with your neighbors?

I had a phenomenal time with clergy and their spouses this week. It was a joy to be back in the classroom and on the road post recovery. I love what I do and when I do it, I am reminded that I was made for this.

It also was a gift to re-engage Love Big, a book that held so much promise and emerged in one of the most difficult seasons of my life.

Many thanks to Kindling Faith at United Lutheran Seminary and its leaders for this incredible opportunity.

I don’t have the words. I am devastated and heartbroken. 💔

And I am thanking God for her - her life, her legacy, and her love.

We are saddened to announce the death of one of SEPA's former bishops, Rev. Dr. Patricia Davenport. You may read more here: https://conta.cc/4h39xEM

Summer nights and travel adventures with him. ✨

Started my birthday week off with my favorite people, doing some of my favorite activities. 🤗

Got to see Odyssey Movie and The Invite. My heart is happy. 😊

Proof of life.

In the grand scheme of things, 8 weeks isn’t a long time.

But when you’re actually in it and am one who is not used to staying put with limited capacity? Now that’s a challenge!

AND

I’m enjoying slower days, quality time, art, sleep, cuddles and hugs. My people are magnificent. 🥹