A fond tribute to Peter and Dhoe Craig-Wild, a well-known clergy couple from our region, has just been published by one of our former clergy.
A close friend for 35 years, Canon John Holmes has written a memoir of the much-missed husband and wife who served in different parishes during their ministry.
They both died aged 64 in 2019. Dhoe died of Motor Neurone Disease and Peter five months later of vascular dementia.
The leaflet is called Transforming Love, a personal memoir of a remarkable couple and is offered free of charge.
“I knew Peter and Dhoe as personal friends for 35 years,” explained Canon John.
“My late wife Rosemary and I first got to know them at a deanery party in the 1980s at St Luke’s vicarage, Holbeck, when I was the local vicar and rural dean and Peter was a curate in the deanery and Dhoe was a deaconess.
“They began their ministry in Leeds and then later on Peter became vicar of Mirfield and an Honorary Canon of Wakefield Cathedral.
“Dhoe was vicar of Andrew’s Bruntcliffe and later Roberttown and Hartshead and also served as a rural dean.
“They had a distinguished and richly blessed ministry in both Leeds and Sheffield dioceses.”
The leaflet has a foreword by Bishop David James, a former Bishop of Pontefract and later Bradford and John is inviting anyone who wants a copy to email him at canon.john@sky.com
“There is no charge for the booklet or cost of posting,” Canon John said.
He spent all the 41 years of his full-time ordained ministry in the area now served by the Diocese of Leeds and completed those years as Canon Missioner at Wakefield Cathedral.
He now lives in retirement on the east coast of Yorkshire and serve in York diocese.
“I have PTO from Leeds as well as York dioceses but my last appointment was as Canon Missioner in Wakefield diocese from 1998 -2007 so I retired from fulltime ministry before the new Diocese of Leeds was formed.
“But I was active as a retired priest in the new diocese until moving over here in 2017,” Canon John said.