Bishop Burkat Retirement Gala
ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton addresses the retirement gala for Bishop Claire Burkat at the Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia July 8.
Bishop Burkat shares a moment with the Rev. Gwendolyn King.
Some 250 people turned out to celebrate Bishop Claire Burkat — bishop, pastor, mother, friend, and baptized child of God — to mark her 40th anniversary in ordained ministry and her upcoming retirement after 12 years as bishop of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod.
“What does one say about someone who always has so much to say?” said the Rev. Kevin L. Strickland, the evening’s master of ceremony. Strickland, ELCA assistant to the presiding bishop and executive for worship, found his answer in “Dayenu,” a thousand-year-old Passover song.
“It would have only been enough if Claire had only walked with one person in discernment in ministry, but this dear sister has walked with hundreds. It would have only been enough if Claire would have helped one congregation strengthen their ministry, but there are too many to count,” he said.
Bishops present, past and future gathered to honor Bishop Burkat.
“She is adaptive change,” said Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton. Bishop Eaton recalled that she and Bishop Burkat were elected the same year, and that our bishop organized the members of their class. “She does have this gift, this charism of hospitality.”
Addressing the honoree, Bishop Eaton said: “Thank you for your leadership in the Conference of Bishops. Thank you — and thank this synod — for modeling what the church can look like, and should look like, and does not yet look like in many parts of the church.”
Strickland and Bishop Eaton each highlighted Bishop Burkat’s willingness to stand up against a variety of “-isms” that keep people of God separated or question their dignity or their citizenship.
Bishop Burkat embraces Rabbi David Strauss.
Rabbi David Strauss, co-convenor of the Religious Leaders Council of Greater Philadelphia, recalled how a phone call the day after the last presidential election led to a conference that drew Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy to discuss together how to support one another and their congregations in a new political climate.
Long-time partners from the North East Diocese of Tanzania offered an audio greeting. Bishop Stephen Munga recalled visits with Bishop Burkat to parishes around the diocese and to the Masai people. When he visits now the Masai always send greetings to Bishop Burkat, because “they remember you as their bishop,” Munga said. “It’s not just the Masai people, but all of the congregations” that the pair visited, touched by Bishop Burkat’s spirit and openness.
Two fellow bishops — Bishop Tracey Bartholomew of New Jersey Synod and Bishop John Macholz of Upstate New York Synod — presented Bishop Burkat with a word-cloud of terms fellow Region 7 bishops used to describe her. The most frequently offered term, she said, was “faithful.”
“Claire…is after all one of the most tenacious, fierce, most loyal and passionate bishops in our church,” Bishop Bartholomew said.
Bishop Burkat making the rounds of well-wishers at her retirement gala.
“She loves this church. And when she get’s ahold of an idea she things will improve something or lead to bigger and better ways of being the church, she holds on until we are all on board.
“And we are the better for it.”
— Bob Fisher
View video greeting from Bishop Stephen and Dr. Anneth Munga.
2018-2022 Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Site by 