York Residency Museum
honours Anglican Priest

Presently displayed at the York Residency Museum are artwork and personal objects left to the York Residency Museum by The Revd Peter Mold, a long serving priest at the Parish of York.

The Revd Peter Mold died on 22 February 2025 having drawn many paintings in retirement. About 60 people attended the official opening of the Exhibition, “Faith, Art and a Life in York” by the current Priest-in-Charge, The Revd Canon Dr Philip Raymont on 2 July 2026.

The Revd Peter Mold was parish priest in York from 1979 to 1990 and involved in many aspects of community life. He went on in retirement to develop his interest in art, taking lessons and completing a significant number of paintings.

In his address Dr Raymont recounted how he and Peter Mold first met when they had lunch at the home of Sally and Tony Boyle in York while he was the senior chaplain at Guildford Grammar School.” On that occasion Peter gave Philip a ‘travelling set’ consisting of a large chalice and paten that belonged to Bishop John Frewer, the Bishop of North-West Australia from 1929 to 1965. As well as being a simple but elegant set, a gift Philip honoured by using it weekly for the School’s Wednesday Eucharist, it reflected Peter’s interest and ability in making connections; something which was quite central to both his personality and ministry, indeed his life in York! Frewer, as Philip had, studied at Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge, albeit Frewer did not complete his degree, subsequently studying at the Lincoln Theological Hostel in the Diocese of Lincoln in England. It was in that Diocese that Peter studied, was ordained, and undertook his earliest ministry as an ordained person. As Dr Raymont reflected one might assume Bishop Frewer had some influence or impact on a young Peter Mold in seeking formation and ordination in the Diocese of Lincoln. Another reason Peter thought it appropriate for this gift to be at Guildford Grammar School was it was to that School that many students from the vast region of the Diocese of North West Australia, the largest land-based Diocese in the Anglican communion, came.

Among the legacies Peter Mold left at Holy Trinity Church are works of creative significance, the Juniper, stained glass windows and the peal of eight bells.
Dr Raymont noted that Peter Mold was in someways an old-fashioned Church of England priest in the sense that as the parish priest one is the “Cure of Souls”. Bishop Martin Gorlock, the Bishop of Dudley in the Diocese of Worcester, and as with Frewer, a Selwyn man, writing in 2025 said of the notion of “Cure of Souls” that it demands “The care and cure of all the souls in your parish, the good and the bad, residents, workers, visitors. Each one a soul known and loved by God. To be entrusted with that is a gift beyond words. The “Cure of Souls” demands partnership working, for how could any priest possibly do this alone? It demands community working, because not every soul will be in your churches on a Sunday. It demands creative working, as you make church open to all and open to God, and mixed ecology responses as you ask God to help you reach the parts of the parish, the traditional church cannot reach. The “Cure of Souls” requires healthy curiosity as you develop interfaith and intercultural sensitivity, and whatever your particular parishes call forth from you.” In quoting those sentiments Dr Raymont suggested we hear something of the way Peter conducted his ministry in York not only when the Rector but later as a resident of the town; he was “out and about” involving himself in its life; he was certainly well known!

Dr Raymont went on to explain that it is not unkind to suggest that Peter enjoyed a little controversy or mischief making. He was not a supporter of women priests or “priestesses” as he was inclined to call them. Despite his long-held position, he developed an appreciation and fondness for the local Regional Bishop, Bishop Kate Wilmot, whom he would have known for much of her life since she was from Northam.

Peter’s retirement home was ‘Stone Grange’, a single-storey stone construction with a steeply pitched gable roof in Newcastle Street. The architect designed, Victorian Rustic Gothic building, was the home of a Pensioner Guard from York’s convict era and part of the early development on the east side of the Avon River in York.

In concluding his address Dr Raymont observed “One can only imagine that Peter would have enjoyed coming to the Exhibition! For certain he would have appreciated the hospitality of the night, and the opportunity to meet and greet so many people. Might I say in conclusion that we can praise God that The Revd Peter Mold came and dwelt in York and that through Faith, Art and a Life in York, he made York and our lives, better, more stimulating and more agreeable. Might the story which is that of The Revd Peter John Mold be one that also encourages all of us to think about the other story his life told, and which he boldly proclaimed, the story which is the life and Gospel of Jesus Christ, Lord and Saviour.”