Cuff 'em! Canadian Pastor hits Guinness World Records

After collecting thousands of cuff links over seven years, a pastor from Ontario is thrilled to receive his world record certificate. 

Carl Moulton is the Pastor of Faith Wesleyan Church in Orangeville, Ont. 

On the morning of February 10, Moulton received his official Guinness World Record certificate, indicating that his 1,925 pairs of cufflinks means he has the most pairs of cuff links in the world. 

"It's unique cufflinks so there are no two pair the same. I started collecting cufflinks about seven years ago. My daughter one day googled the largest collection in the world and she said, 'Dad you're not that far away from being the world record holder,' so I thought let's go for it then."

From the time Moulton reached out to Guinness until they acknowledged he had indeed reached the world record took two years. 

"It's more than just sending in a letter and some pictures. I had to get a jeweller to come in and count them all, and the mayor of the town came and he counted and signed that he counted. The hardest part was I had to give a written description of every cuff link."

Wearing cuff links often means a person is also wearing a formal suit, but Moulton didn't start off his career as a pastor dressing up. 

"I've been a pastor here for 20 years. I didn't dress up per see initially, in the summertime, I'd wear a golf shirt and some jeans. I guess one day I said you know what, I'm going to dress up a little bit and I bought these shirts called dual cuff shirts."

The dual cuff means you can either button the bottom of the sleeve or wear cuff links.

"I started buying cuff links and getting cuff links and people started noticing them at church. Then I started getting them for Father's Day, birthdays, and for Christmas and they just seemed to multiply. It's become a thing that now you're not allowed to 'out dress' the pastor," jokes Moulton. 

One of the pastor's earliest memories is being at his uncle's house when he was young and seeing a pair of cuff links on a dresser. Surprisingly enough, those first pair of cuff links came back to Moulton through a series of events just four months ago. 

"My wife asked me to stop and I said I'll stop when I get the recognition, so I might have bought my last pair of cuff links."

People from around the world have sent Moulton cufflinks, including a distant relative from Sweden. He says on one occasion his dentist gifted him a pair of 24K gold cuff links. 

"I probably have closer to 3,000 now because I bought somebody's collection that was 550 in October. But now that I got the certificate, I'm done."

After seven years of collecting all these cuff links, while Moulton is glad to receive the certificate he's also mourning that the journey is over. 

"What I've really learned is that you can find a way to connect with people, and as a pastor, you want to connect with people, find something in common," says Moulton. It has given him a bridge to connect with people on a deeper level to open up about faith as well.  

"It's brought me and a lot of other people joy, to be on this journey, and I just thank God for that," he says.