The Rev. Dr. Wilbert Forker, who died on 30 May in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was a Methodist minister who had a passion to help people of all faiths to understand and accept one another and to know Jesus’s command to love one another and to forgive one another just as God forgave them through Jesus Christ.

In recent years he founded the Collum Cille Trust to promote Celtic Spirituality. To the last he remained resolute in his Christian faith, and no less fervent in his support of ecumenism.

He was born in Portadown, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland on 15 July 1935, son of William and Esther Forker, and educated at Shaftesbury House, Belfast, and Edgehill College, Belfast, graduating there in 1958. He had earlier started a degree course in Economics at Trinity College, Dublin, but left before graduating in order to undertake his training for the Methodist ministry at Edgehill. He was later awarded an MBA and a Doctor of Ministry degree from an American graduate school.

As a yet unordained Minister of the Methodist Church, he went out to British Guiana in January 1959 (subsequently to become Guyana). His fiancée, Maureen McMullan, followed in June 1959, and they were married in Georgetown on 29 June 1959. Two years later he was formally ordained as a minister of the Methodist Church in Ireland. He served as a Methodist minister in Guyana from 1959-62, then in St. Vincent from 1964-66, and in Barbados from 1966-68.

During these years, Wilbert’s interest in journalism flourished when he was invited to become a “stringer” for Reuters Caribbean Service, then being established by John Bland. A longtime friendship of some 40 years between their two families ensued. Wilbert and Maureen's son Christopher Michael was born in Guyana, and their daughter Kathryn Esther was born in Northern Ireland.

From 1968-1972, Wilbert was Chief Press Officer for the World Council of Churches, based in Geneva, Switzerland. It was during this time that Sir John Templeton (1912 - 2008), made contact with Wilbert and invited him to establish the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, since renamed the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, the patron of which is HRH Prince Philip. Sir John and Wilbert shared a common philosophy, and he was appointed Executive Vice-President of The Templeton Foundation in 1972, a position that he held until his retirement in 2000. The purpose of the Prize is to expand Man’s love and understanding of God, and it is open to the benefits and values of other faiths.

In 1972 Wilbert and family moved to Belfast from where he initially administered the Templeton Prize, and where he also established Christian Journals, a publishing house focused on promoting books which sought inter-faith reconciliation. In 1982, Wilbert and Maureen moved to the Bahamas where he became Founder and Dean of the Templeton Theological Seminary in Nassau in 1985 and President in 1987. He was also Chairman of the Seminary's Board of Trustees from 1989. Always an active mover and shaker in the field of ecumenism, he was appointed a Member of the Advisory Board of the International Council of Christians and Jews from 1991 to 2000, a Board Member of the Centre for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University from 1994 to 2000, and a Trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions 1997-1999. While in the Bahamas, Wilbert established “A Tournament with a Heart”, an annual golf tournament, which raised funds for local Bahamian charities.

Between 1977 and 1998, Wilbert was the author and editor of five volumes of the Templeton Prize (1977, 1988, 1992, 1997 and 1998). These volumes summarized the lives and works of successive Prize Laureates, who over the years have ranged from Mother Theresa of Calcutta (1973) and Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement (1981), to the evangelist Dr. Billy Graham (1982) and Pandurang Shastri Athavale, social reformer, philosopher and founder of India's socio-spiritual Swadhyay Movement (1997).

Wilbert and Maureen retired to the West Indian island of Anguilla in 2000. It was at this time that he was a catalyst in inviting fellow retired Methodist ministers to contribute chapters towards a concerted effort recording emancipation in the West Indies. “Born in Slavery: the Story of Methodism in Anguilla and its Influence in the Caribbean" was published in 2003, and included photographs provided by a local photographer, Brenda Carty. This publication showed that, by the late 18th Century, many years before emancipation became law in Britain, slaves were already being set free in neighbouring Antigua by Nathanial Gilbert, a plantation owner who had himself heard John Wesley preach in London.

Wilbert was inspired by Celtic Spirituality and one of his last undertakings was bringing attention back to the Gospel as inspired by St. Patrick. This resulted in a Collum Cille Trust publication of “A Passion for Justice” by Rev. Dr. Johnston McMaster in 2008 to be used in Religious Studies education in schools in Ireland.

In August 1996 came the grim news that Wilbert had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Drug treatment held the worst effects at bay for several years, but in September 2003, Wilbert underwent an innovative treatment for Parkinson’s. This action undoubtedly gave Wilbert many more years of active life, time to enjoy the delights of retirement, visits to his children and grandchildren in the UK and the USA, to engage in occasional rounds of golf, and to maintain his lifelong hobby of stamp-collecting.

Wilbert had a deep appreciation for music and the Arts, and he treasured his collection of Irish works. His interest in sports led him, in particular, to support Manchester United, his favorite football team. He also followed cricket and golf, and held a deep admiration for athletics, following all major meets. Always he had the unfailing love and support of Maureen, and of their two children – now with children of their own – Christopher who trained as a naval architect in Newcastle, and Kathryn who became a staff member with the World Health Organization in Geneva and later a Montessori teacher in New York State.

Eventually his health was seriously failing, and in 2006 he and Maureen returned home to the UK from Anguilla and decided to call the Isle of Man home, with its friendly climate and where they had both family and friends. Following a bad fall, he entered a rehabilitation unit until more intensive care was sought for him at the Newcastle General Hospital. Wilbert Forker passed away, aged 73, on May 30, 2009, with Maureen, Christopher and Kathryn at his bedside. His funeral will take place at 2.30 pm on 10 June 2009 at St. Vindic’s Church, Tynan, Co. Armagh, N. Ireland.

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