Claire Burkat installed as 1st female bishop of synod

Amid all the excitement, newly installed Bishop Claire Schenot Burkat once said “confusion” when she meant “confessions” while installing her staff. Later, during the installation recessional, she left the stage without the bishop’s crozier, which minutes before had been presented to her by her predecessor, Roy Almquist. She ran back to get it.

No matter. The human foibles and the self-effacing way their new Bishop dealt with them only served to warm the assembly’s ceremonial embrace of Burkat. During the two-hour-plus service, she became the first woman to head the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod with its 174 congregations across Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties. More than 1,000 onlookers, clearly thrilled to be part of the occasion, attended. The congregation included friends, family, Lutheran and Episcopal clergy, ecumenical and interfaith participants.

Burkat, a Brooklyn, NY, native who now lives in Ambler and worships at Holy Communion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, will have a six-year term as the spiritual leader of 95,000 Lutherans who live in Greater Philadelphia. The installation event took place at New Covenant Church in the city’s Mt. Airy section, just down the street from LTSP, where Burkat completed her studies for ordination in 1978. 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.

Duran had a lot of fun with the congregation, but he also had words of support for them from the Isaiah text.

“The good news for the people of Zion is that ‘Your God reigns.’ Someone is in charge, in control, with the power to oversee, a real CEO,” Duran quipped. “Someone is watching out for you. God is on a mission to establish a reign of the universe. Jesus understands the human predicament and reconciles us. The message is there is always hope. God will never abandon us. God gives us all the world to enjoy in its wholeness. We share equality under God. What a gift it is for us to hear that message about the presence of God in our midst. God gives us the opportunity to welcome all of God’s family to baptism – right from the get-go! What is your role in this? What is my role? All of our gifts are useful and crucial to God. When we give back to God these gifts become like a mirror reflecting God’s light to the world.” And the church gets inspiration from God, he said, when it connects to its neighborhood and finds out what is going on.

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. Alex served as a lector during the service.

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.

The service was also the occasion for installing and celebrating the lives of other synod leaders. They are the pastoral assistants the Rev.Dr. Gemechis D. Buba, evangelical outreach; the Rev. Dr. Lawrence L. Hand, vocations and leadership; the Rev. Serena S. Sellers, connections and resources;
Program assistants Margaret S. Cameron, Business Manager; Joanne Carlson, global vision and events; Molly Beck Dean, youth ministry specialist; Robert W. Fisher, mission interpretation; Janine Nawinski, director of operations; and synod staff Ginny Bailey, project coordination; Laura Kalemkarian, youth ministry assistant; Judy Koenig, synodical bookkeeper; Cynta Outterbridge, database manager, and Debbie Perez, coordinator for evangelical outreach.

Such events often have the look and feel of a reunion. Hugs, laughter and joy were all around. The occasion was marked by special music – brass, a stirringly enthusiastic youth choir, and an adult choir ensemble from around the synod. Musical leaders included the Rev.Bruce Todd, Mark Mummert, Lina Baker, a choir from One in Christ Mission in Telford, and the Rev. Leah Schade, who played the harp. Many dozens of volunteers contributed to the warmth of the occasion.

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.”

Bennison quipped that as Bishop, Burkat will “never lack something to do or something to eat” and there will be times when she may feel like she doesn’t know what is going on. He urged her to heed the words of II Corinthians about “living with the mystery of Christ.” And he urged her not to be afraid to “tell people the Good News they don’t see right now.”

Bishop Stephen Munga of the Northeastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, the synod’s companion partner, said the “biggest gift” is to be carried in prayer, and he said that all the congregations of the companion synod he is a part of “will be praying for you tomorrow. My heart is filled with happiness and joy as I witness to what the Lord is doing here today.”

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: http://www.ltsp.edu/sepa/bishopburkat.jpg