Born and raised an Episcopalian, [Bruce] Baker, 71, became a married deacon in the Catholic Church in 1982. Following his first wife’s death in 1990, he was ordained a priest and served as executive director of an ecumenical retreat center in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
In 2006, he requested a leave of absence from his religious community and moved to Reading to study hospital chaplaincy at Reading Hospital and Medical Center. In 2007, he returned to the Episcopal Church and was married. Bishop Paul V. Marshall of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem received him as a priest of the Episcopal Church in 2008.