Our Interim Priest

CLERGY TRANSITION

As we bid a fond farewell to Dan and Teresa, we look forward very soon to greeting the Rev. Canon Dr. Walter J. Baer, who will serve as our interim priest starting from Sunday 5 July.  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 native of Wisconsin, born to an immigrant family, 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, including Province II. 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. Over the course of his ministry, he has visited every diocese in the Province II, except the Virgin Islands. 

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 works with the Convocation’s congregations and institutions in seven countries. He retired from that role in February 2026. He has served 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 80th, 81st, and now the 82nd General Convention and currently is on the Standing Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations (an interim body of General Convention), focusing on relationships between TEC and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria, the Church of Sweden, and the Anglican Communion Office. Walter and his husband Peter together have four grown children and three grandchildren. They make their home in Vienna and Paris.