Installation of Bishop Claire S. Burkat
Bishop Claire S. Burkat installed
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 14, 2006 -- In a ceremonial Holy Communion worship service marked by the enthusiastic, globally inspired music of a youth choir, the Rev. Claire Schenot Burkat today was formally
installed as the first female Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod.
Burkat, a Brooklyn, NY, native who now lives in Ambler, will have a six-year term as the spiritual leader of 95,000 Lutherans who live in Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Montgomery
and Delaware counties. The installation event took place at New Covenant Church in the city's Mt. Airy section, just down the street from The Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia, from which she graduated in 1978. The event's warm ceremonial embrace included more than 1,000 onlookers and greetings from ecumenical and interfaith
representatives. The service was presided over by the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, the ELCA's Presiding Bishop.
Elected the fourth bishop of the synod on May 6 of this year, she began serving the synod's 174 congregations on July 1, a Saturday she spent touring Bucks County to pray
with and console dozens of survivors beset by devastating floods just three days before.
At the time of her election she had been serving as mission director for the synod and the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. In that capacity she had overseen the planting of
16 ELCA congregations and designed a strategy for redevelopment of at-risk congregations in the synod.
No wonder the preacher for the day, the Rev. Ruben Duran, chose to echo the words of Isaiah 52: 7-10 ("How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who
announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'")
"You have no idea what you have done in Southeastern Pennsylvania," said Duran, executive for New Congregations in the 4.9 million-member ELCA. "You've elected a Bishop
with beautiful feet! She'll be in your church and in your face inviting you to be busy about the things that God expects. She'll demand a high level of commitment from you.
She'll inspire you to be a good steward of God's gifts." Duran has worked with Burkat on mission matters for several years.
Saying that her heart was "full of joy and thanksgiving," Burkat said she was awed and humbled by her new responsibilities. "There are so many that I want to thank."
She selected for special mention the wide variety of faith communities represented. "No one does this work alone," she said.
Burkat paid tribute to her parents, Malcolm and Almeda, who were in attendance. "They brought me to the baptismal font at Grace Lutheran Church in Brooklyn on August 26. I'm
not going to say what year. They had the unconditional good sense to give me freedom to explore, and I'm so grateful to have them."
She expressed deep appreciation to her son, Alex, in his third year at the University of Pittsburgh. Calling her son "precious," Burkat said she is inspired by her Alex's
humor, "steady, resilient temperament" and spiritual sense that she said she hopes will continue to guide him.
She gave thanks to the congregations and friends that have been part of her faith formation | Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bellerose (Queens), NY; Holy Trinity Lutheran
Church, Abington, PA, where she served as pastor, and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Philadelphia's Olney section. And she expressed deep thanks to her predecessor bishops in
the synod and their spouses and to area ecumenical and interfaith leaders with whom she has felt herself in partnership. She stressed the critical importance of a "new
cooperation in peace and justice" which she said is reconciling Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Greetings from denominational, ecumenical and interfaith partners included brief greetings by Bishop Milton Grannum, senior pastor of the host New Covenant congregation;
Carlos Pena, vice president of the ELCA; the Rev. Roy E. Riley, Jr., Chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops and Bishop of the New Jersey Synod; the Right Rev. Charles
Bennison, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania; the Rev. Dr. Russell Mitman, conference minister for the United Church of Christ; Burt Sigel, executive director
of the Jewish Community Relations Council; the Rev. James E. McJunkin, executive minister of the Philadelphia Baptist Association; the Rev. Dr. Stephen Munga, Bishop of
the Northeastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (with which the synod Burkat leads is in partnership), and Father Greg Fairbanks of the Philadelphia
Catholic Archdiocese.
Fairbanks said he believes some mark the relationship between Roman Catholics and Lutherans more by "what divides us," but said the spirit of the day celebrates more "all
that we have in common."
Sigel remarked that he's not sure what his grandparents would say if they knew he is sharing the stage with a Lutheran Bishop he views as a colleague. "Only in America," he said.
A publication quality photo is available online
here.
Article by Mark Staples, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Photograph by Lisa Godfrey.