'Inside Evangelist' Kennedy Baker

Angela Lorrigan

Making the decision to enter an aged care facility because of a degenerative physical condition is something that no-one wants to experience, and yet it happens often. When discussing my ministry visiting aged care centres in Bendigo I have often been met with the response; “I’ll never move into one of those places.” I really wish people wouldn’t say that. Partly because for most people who find themselves in this position, it is an unavoidable necessity. But more importantly, because it negates the useful contribution that so many people in aged care make to the community. One such person is Kennedy Baker.

Kennedy came to live in Strathaven because of the progression of Parkinson’s Disease. When he moved there, he took with him a lifetime of experience of management and management consulting and a gift for looking at communities and figuring out how they work. He also took with him his Christian faith.

Not long after Kennedy moved into Strathaven, missing regular participation in the Eucharist, and seeing the need for this in others, he, in partnership with David Winter and Tom Glazebrook (both now deceased) organised a monthly Anglican Communion service. This service has grown into a very special phenomenon. It provides prayerful and practical support to its members and, among other things, helps them deal with the regular loss of good friends to death, the impact of which is often lost on those outside aged care communities.

In fact, it is the reluctance of people to contemplate ‘entering the wormhole’ that was one of the main drivers for Kennedy when he initiated the Anglican service, and also when he offered his services as a member of the Palliative Care Committee. Kennedy describes death as the ‘wormhole’, seeing an analogy with the wormholes of physics, which connect different parts of spacetime.

Since coming to Strathaven, Kennedy has made time for himself to contemplate his own death, and through this he has arrived at a point where his faith gives him extreme confidence and comfort. This he says is one of the benefits of his situation; unlike many others who are still running around keeping up with busy lives avoiding thoughts of death, he has had “proper reflection time” and is “increasingly of the view that this is necessary to think very hard about the change that will occur.”

As a result of his contemplation and reflection, Kennedy wants to share with others the message of certainty offered by the Gospel; “people talk about hope, but Jesus offers certainty, there is not the slightest doubt, ‘my Father’s house has many rooms, there is one for you.’” It is this certainty, a result of his time of reflection, that has allowed Kennedy to show great initiative and leadership as a Christian and as member of the Strathaven community.