A quarter century of contributions

The year 1985 was a good one despite the abundance of shoulder-pads and leg-warmers. The first dot-com was registered that year and the pop industry was busy singing “We Are The World” to help the hungry in Africa. That year also happened to be one in which a young priest from Levittown, Penn., accepted the call to become the associate pastor of what was then the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Malverne.

Some two-and-a-half decades later, the young priest, Craig William Bates — now a 61-year-old bishop — is celebrating 25 years of commitment to Malverne and to the rechristened Cathedral Church of the Intercessor.

Bates, who resides in Baldwin, was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1989 after earning a Master of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He went on to serve as senior pastor at the Church of the Good Shepherd in West Fitchburg, Mass., where he remained for five years before packing up his family and following his calling to ministry on Long Island.

Having earned a Master of Art in general counseling, Bates was a practicing psychologist prior to being ordained; He chose to embark on a more spiritual route.

“[I was] beginning to have a relationship with Christ and saw the church as a place to minister to families, minister to people, minister to a community,” Bates said, “so it became attractive. I was a psychologist before I went into the ministry, so it’s sort of a continuation of that. And faith has always been a central part of my life.”

The Bates family arrived on Long Island in 1985 and hasn’t left since. Bates, an active leader in the pro-life movement, lived in Long Beach for some time, then moved to Baldwin two years ago, but never strayed from serving in Malverne. “The Lord called me here,” Bates said, “but I’ve had a commitment to Malverne. I like the community, I love the church and so there’s been no reason to move. It’s a good place to live, good place to raise a family.”