Our Interim Priest
CLERGY TRANSITION
As we bid a fond farewell to Dan and Teresa Morrow, we look forward to greeting the Rev. Canon Dr. Walter J. Baer, who will serve as our interim priest starting end of August 2026. Please be sure to give him a warm Ascension welcome.
The Reverend Canon Dr. Walter Baer is Canon for Ecumenical Relations & Chaplain to Retired Clergy, a non-stipendiary position in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. A native of Wisconsin, born to an immigrant family, his father was Swiss and his mother Austrian. He was raised in a multi-lingual home in Madison Wisconsin. Ordained deacon and priest in the Diocese of Milwaukee in 1985, Walter served for 30 years in Louisiana both in the Diocese of Western Louisiana and the Diocese of Louisiana. Parish ministry included cathedral, parochial, Episcopal school, and campus ministries. He was Canon to the Ordinary in Western Louisiana 1990-96, a Deputy or Alternate Deputy to General Conventions in 1991, 1994, 2000, and 2003. Starting in 2003, he served as rector of a multi-cultural parish in New Orleans, with Anglo, Latino, and African communities, rebuilding the church and community after Hurricane Katrina with the help of partners from many parts of the US. Walter also spent six years in chaplaincy/administration at a large diocesan K-12 Episcopal / Independent School in suburban New Orleans, including over two years as interim headmaster. Both in New Orleans and state-wide in Louisiana, he was active in Community Organizing and justice issues. Mission work has included multiple trips to Dominican Republic and Honduras, two trips to Cuba and a trip to Haiti.
After relocating to Vienna, Austria in 2015, he worked with the Old Catholic Church in Austria engaging in interim ministry. In January 2017, he accepted the position of Archdeacon for the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, based in Paris, and worked with the Convocation’s congregations and institutions in seven countries. He retired from that role in February 2026. He continues to serve as Vice President of Province II of the Episcopal Church (the dioceses in New York, New Jersey, Haiti, Virgin Islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Europe).
Walter served as deputy to the 2022, 2024 and now the 2027 General Conventions and serves on the Standing Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations (an interim body of General Convention), focusing on relationships between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria, the Church of Sweden, the Old Catholic Churches and the Anglican Communion Office. Walter and his husband Peter together have four grown children and four grandchildren. They make their home in Vienna and Paris.