The Rev. Dr. Darian Duckworth

Denomination: United Methodist Church (UMC)
Organization: First United Methodist Church, West Point, MS

The Rev. Dr. Darian Duckworth has been in pastoral ministry in Mississippi since 2007, and currently serves as the pastor of First United Methodist Church of West Point, Mississippi. She has also served Grace United Methodist Church in Natchez, Mississippi, and St. Luke United Methodist Church and Shipman Chapel in Cleveland, Mississippi. While all of these congregations hold special places in her heart, Shipman Chapel is especially worth noting because they had six members that faithfully met weekly, and a skunk regularly attended but thankfully stayed outside!

She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. In May of 2020 she received the Doctor of Ministry degree at McAfee School of Theology. Her passion in ministry is the relationship between the local church and end-of-life care, the topic of her project thesis.

“Dr. D,” as the congregation is learning to call her, is a certified Yahweh Yoga teacher (YYT-100) and is currently learning how to teach yoga over YouTube as a tool to ease COVID 19 anxieties of church members. Her favorite theologians include The Highwomen, Mumford & Sons, her dog, Isaac, and her ten-year-old niece, Savannah.