Diocesan News31 Mar 15

Cork Diocesan Secretary Retires After 42 Years’ Service

Mr Wilfred Baker (centre) with l–r: Bishop Sam Poyntz, Bishop Michael Mayes, Archbishop Richard Clarke, Bishop Paul Colton, Bishop Roy Warke

Wilfred Baker, Diocesan Secretary of the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross has retired today, Tuesday, 31st March, after 42 years service to the Diocese. People from around the Diocese gathered at St Luke’s Church, Douglas, Cork for Evensong during which Wilfred gave the address. The Service was conducted by the rector of the Parish, Archdeacon Adrian Wilkinson.

Afterwards the Bishop – the Rt Revd Dr Paul Colton – thanked Wilfred for his service to the Diocese, drawing on the Diocesan Reports, the Journals of the General Synod, and the Diocesan Magazine, to give some ‘then and now’ perspectives on Wilfred’s time in office.

On behalf of the Diocese (clergy, parishes, people and former bishops and clergy who served in the Diocese in Wilfred’s time in office) the Bishop presented Wilfred with an especially commissioned Cork solid silver Strawberry Dish from a typical 18th Century Cork design made by local silversmith, Sean Carroll. The dish, uniquely, has been emblazoned in gold leaf with the coat of arms of the Diocese, and engraved with a tribute to Wilfred as a mark of everyone’s affection, gratitude and esteem. The Dean of Cork presented Wilfred with his second present: an aerial photograph of the Cathedral which, as the Bishop said ‘is to be hung in your Waterford house to remind you that your home is now in Cork!’